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Liberty Stadium, home of Swansea City and The Ospreys. A sports culture became the modern theme of Swansea in place of the copper industry.

The presence of copper in Wales traces back to a small smelting industry in a town called Aberdulais. This business quickly tapered off, as the only accessible copper in Wales at the time had to be shipped from the South by Cornwall, England.[1] This failure helped push the Welsh towards local mining. By the 18th century, a series of mines in Amlwch on Anglesey comprised what became known as the Copper Kingdom in North Wales.[2] This industry marked the start of an era of wealth and prosperity for the Welsh, but globalization of the copper market would eventually lead to its downfall. As the copper industry expanded across Wales, copperworks began appearing throughout the Glamorgan area.[3] Copper processed at these facilities initiated the international trade that started the globalization process.

Today, in remembrance of a forgone era, some mines have been reopened for tourism as history museum attractions. The Hafod Morfa copperworks in Swansea went through a revitalization in 2014 to commemorate the industry that rose the city to great heights during the lifetime of the copper kingdom.[4] During an interview, Richard Porch, a regeneration officer for the city of Swansea, described the visual impact of this project:

"The canal was created in the 1790s and brought coal down from the upper Swansea Valley for export via the docks to fuel the furnaces of the mighty Hafod Copperworks which started operating in 1810. The vast grey walling to the left is a retaining wall that once held back a bank of slag and helped carry an elevated railway which brought slag on wagons. To the right can be seen the lighter-coloured canal walling — mostly made from copper slag blocks — and the other vertical feature is a pier that helped support that railway. All of these features are now listed and part of the industrial archaeology of this highly significant heritage site."[5]

The copper industry was far more than a source of monetary gain for the Welsh; it intertwined itself with their culture, expressed in art, song and traditions across the country. The world in its entirety knew the nation not as the boot of England, but as a land of skilled craftsmen and hard workers regarded highly for their ability to share their trade with other countries. This renown, however, was also what led to the Welsh stretching themselves across the globe, practicing their trade in other countries, leaving Wales to lose its most profitable local industry.

Background

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Morris Castle

Aberdulais mining began in the mid sixteenth century in a small facility.[6] The local waterfalls provided sufficient power to supply the refinery, allowing Neath Valley to be the first commercial copper entity in Wales, supplying English industries in Bristol and London.[7] However, due to the economic strains of collecting raw copper from Cornwall, the Aberdulais venture proved to be a failed endeavor.[8] Even so, this small facility laid the foundation for Wales to grow into a copper superpower. A man by the name of Robert Morris played a major role in building upon this foundation to build up the Copper Kingdom in the eighteenth century.[9] In a reflection upon his father's work, Robert Morris Jr. provided some insight into the economic struggles of the Cornwall relationship:

"Great scarcity of money there: mostly dealings for credit and bad persons to trust. The neap tides no conveyance to Cornwall by shipping. By which it appears as if the River was not so good in its navigation then as now."[10]

Over the years, mining became a primary occupation for the Welsh. By the eighteenth century, a series of mines in Amlwch on Anglesey formed the primary sources for raw ore.[11] As the nation entered into the industrial era, Welsh copper supported roughly two-thirds of the entire population.[12] Among the most famous facilities was the Hafod Copperworks, established in 1810 by a man named John Vivian.[13] His copper business would survive to be the longest lasting in Wales, smelting copper until 1980.[14]

Expansion and decay

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Throughout the nineteenth century, globalization became the new goal. An 1807 news story from The Cambrian speaks with the vast pride that was taken in newly founded trade with Ireland, one of the first consumers of copper exported from Swansea, Wales.[15] These deals led to enormous profits during the first half of the nineteenth century as the copper trade continued to expand throughout the nation. However, these profits, along with the pride held by the Welsh in their global presence with this trade, would soon begin to decline as external trade negotiations sent Welsh miners abroad to apply their craft.[16]

As trade expanded, the Welsh copper industry linked into the African-American slave trade via the Cambrian Connection.[17] Copper became a prime bartering tool in exchange for exports out of West Africa. To sustain this trade, Welsh-invested companies took an interest in the Cobre copper mines in Cuba, opening them with direct links to Welsh copperworks.[18] This decision led to the uprising of Cuban trade and Chilean copper as the global superpower in the copper market. While the copper refining industry in Wales continued throughout the twentieth century, “Welsh Copper” quietly disappeared, as copper mined by Welshmen around the world proved to be more profitable for local refineries than the lower quality ore mined locally.[19] Turkish copper in particular proved to be more pure, resulting in more attractive, more valuable ingots.[20] Due to the nation’s heavy reliance on this resource, Wales started on a fast track towards poverty.

While the copper refining industry continued throughout the twentieth century, “Welsh Copper” quietly disappeared. Llanymnech Hill was a primary site of late-eighteenth century ore mining. The image to the left shows a modern view of the historical site.

Emergence in the Welsh culture

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The life of the copper industry left Wales scarred with the telltale signs of the industrial era and the death tolls to match. Children and old women were often tasked with sorting ore as there were few other jobs for them to fill. The Welsh culture had shifted to adapt to a copper- and coal-driven community, and would now find itself once again searching for a new form to take as these mines closed down. Women were often tasked with cleaning and breaking up the raw ore coming out of the Anglesey mines.[21] Known as "Copar Ledis," these women became an image of nineteenth century Welsh culture.[22] Being a musical culture, the Welsh crafted a song about their hard work and meager rewards:

Maent oll yn ferched medrus
A hwylus hefo'u gwaith
A'u henwau geir yn barchus
Gan fwynwyr o bob iaith;
Hwy weithient oll yn galed
Am gyflog bychan iawn
O'r braidd cant drigain ceiniog
Am weithio wythnos lawn.[23]

This song roughly translates to, "They are skillful women and able at their work; and miners of all nationalities regard them with respect. They work hard for a very small wage, hardly earning fourteen shillings a week."[24] Representing the image of a Copar Ledi, this song serves well to summarize the life of the Welsh copper industry itself. From meager beginnings, running off a single water wheel,[25] the copper kingdom tried and failed numerous times to breach a global market. In the eighteenth century, the Morris empire found a foothold and gave Welsh copper an identity. As time passed, this identity grew into a mighty kingdom before reaching too far and stretching itself too thin. By the time Swansea became known around the world as a copper superpower, Turkish and Chilean copper grew identities of their own. As Welsh miners immigrated to the new sites to apply their practiced trade, the quality of these foreign ores proved to be far more profitable than the rough Welsh copper they were used to retrieving. The global market spoke up, and mines across Wales closed down due to a lack of demand for the inferior ore. The Welsh miners were still applied and well regarded around the world, as were the copper ladies before them, but earnings dwindled and the trade died out in the twentieth century. One can claim that the copper mines across the world are still Welsh mines due to the workers who gave them life, but as for the nation itself, Wales once again had to learn to adapt to a new world and a shifting culture, morphing into the nation of sport and art that it is today.

References

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  1. ^ Jenkins, P. (1992). A History of Modern Wales, 1536-1990. London: Longman.
  2. ^ Harris, J. R. (2003). The Copper King. Thomas Williams of Llanidan. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Landmark Publishing.
  3. ^ Thomas, W. G. (1969). "The coal mining industry in West Glamorgan". In S. Williams (ed.). Glamorgan Historian 6. Cowbridge: D. Brown and Sons. pp. 201–227.
  4. ^ Porch, Richard. "A Short History of the Hafod Copperworks 1810-1924." Swansea: City and County of Swansea.
  5. ^ ibid
  6. ^ Miskell, Louise, and Robert Morris. "The Origins of an Industrial Region: Robert Morris and the First Swansea Copper Works," C.1727-1730. Newport: South Wales Record Society, 2010.
  7. ^ ibid
  8. ^ ibid
  9. ^ ibid
  10. ^ ibid
  11. ^ Harris
  12. ^ BBC. "15. The Industrial Revolution." BBC News. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/history/sites/themes/guide/ch15_industrial_revolution.shtml.
  13. ^ Vivian, J. H. (1823). "An account of the process of smelting copper as conducted at the Hafod Works". Annals of Philosophy 5: 113–124.
  14. ^ ibid
  15. ^ Newell, Edmund (1990). "‘Copperopolis’: The Rise and Fall of the Copper Industry in the Swansea District, 1826--1921". Business History 32 (3): 75–97. ISSN 0007-6791. Retrieved 2015-02-09.
  16. ^ Group, Pyrites. "The Copper Trade, Swansea, 1860-1914." Edinburgh: Waddie & Co., Ltd.
  17. ^ Culver, William W.; Reinhart, Cornel J. (1989). "Capitalist Dreams: Chile's Response to Nineteenth-Century World Copper Competition". Comparative Studies in Society and History 31 (04): 722–744. doi:10.1017/S0010417500016170. ISSN 1475-2999. Retrieved 2015-02-08.
  18. ^ Evans, Chris (2014-07-01). "El Cobre: Cuban Ore and the Globalization of Swansea Copper, 1830–70". The Welsh History Review 27 (1): 112–131.
  19. ^ Evans, Chris (2014-07-01). "A World of Copper: Introducing Swansea, Globalization and the Industrial Revolution". The Welsh History Review 27 (1): 85–91.
  20. ^ ibid
  21. ^ Anglesey County Record Office. "Anglesey 'copar Ledi', 19th Century :: Gathering the Jewels." Anglesey 'copar Ledi', 19th Century :: Gathering the Jewels. Accessed May 11, 2015. http://education.gtj.org.uk/en/item1/4591.
  22. ^ ibid
  23. ^ ibid
  24. ^ ibid
  25. ^ ibid

Bibliography

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  • Harris, J. R. (2003). The Copper King. Thomas Williams of Llanidan. Ashbourne, Derbyshire: Landmark Publishing.
  • Roberts, R. O. (1958). "The copper industry of Neath and Swansea: records of a suit in the Court of the Exchequer, 1723". South Wales Record Society Publication. 4: 1–38.
  • Harris, A. E. (1935). Swansea, its Port and Trade and Development. Swansea: Western Mail and Echo.
  • Group, Pyrites. The Copper Trade, Swansea, 1860-1914. Edinburgh: Waddie & Co., Ltd. {{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  • Wilkins, C. A History of the South Wales Coal Trade and its Allied Industries from the Earliest Days to the Present Time. Cardiff: 1888.
  • Phillips, Martin (1935). The copper industry in the Port Talbot district. Neath: The Guardian Press.
  • Harvey, Charles; Press, Jon (1990). "THE CITY AND INTERNATIONAL MINING, 1870-1914". Business History. 32 (3): 98. ISSN 0007-6791.
  • Swansea and its region. W. G. V. Balchin (ed.). Swansea: University of Wales Press. 1971.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • The City of Swansea: Challenges and Change. Ralph A. Griffiths (ed.). Stroud: A. Sutton. 1991.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  • Miskell, Louise (2014-07-01). "From Copperopolis to Coquimbo: International Knowledge Networks in the Copper Industry of the 1820s". The Welsh History Review. 27 (1): 92–111.
  • Jones, Bill (2014-07-01). "Labour Migration and Cross-Cultural Encounters: Welsh Copper Workers in Chile in the Nineteenth Century". The Welsh History Review. 27 (1): 132–154.
  • SWEET; Sweet, R. (1996). "STABILITY AND CONTINUITY - SWANSEA POLITICS AND REFORM, 1780-1820". Welsh history review. 18 (1): 14–39. ISSN 0043-2431.


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