| Description | On 14 April 1806 a meeting of merchants and manufacturers was held in Birmingham to consider the tax of 40 shillings per ton upon Pig Iron proposed by the Government. It was felt that this action would prove ruinous to manufacturing and the hardware trade and a deputation was organised to present the objections to Lord Henry Petty. After debates in the House of Commons, the Birmingham deputation reported back to a meeting in the town on 26 May 1806 that the Government had abandoned the proposed tax on iron.
Correspondence on the Iron Trade and on the proposed Tax on pig iron appears to have existed in the Boulton papers by 1812 when it is listed in William Cheshire's catalogue as part of Volume [i.e. portfolio] G.
The letters and papers listed here appear to fall mainly into three years: 1785, 1797 and 1806, with two later ones at the end. They have been listed as far as possible in chronological order. Many of the documents are undated but were previously assigned a possible date by the Assay Office. These dates are given as 'circa' in the list below. The last two items dated 1826 and 1823-30 were originally filed with correspondence but appear to have been placed with the other papers on the iron trade because of their relevance to it.
There is more than one version of some of the documents, suggesting either distribution to various people, or re-drafting. It is clear from the original original [18th or 19th century] numbers written on some of the documents that they were in sets but it is now unclear which documents belong to which set. However, where groups of documents do appear to belong together, they have been placed together in paper folders. The original number is given in square brackets.
The main correspondent in the earlier documents is Samuel Garbett (1717-1803), Birmingham industrialist and ironmaster.
James Watt senior and junior, along with an un-named person, appear to have made an extensive tour of mines and ironworks in the Forest of Dean and South Wales in May and June 1800. A comprehensive report was produced, which may possibly be in James Watt junior's handwriting, along with some other information. All of this material has been grouped together in Folder no. 5, items 36-40.
See also James Watt Junior's notebook entitled 'Iron Works in South Wales', in the James Watt Papers, MS 3219/6/38. This records a visit to the same area from 16-25 April 1800. Some of the entries in the notebook contain identical information to some of those in the report.
Comments in square brackets have been added by the cataloguer. |