The choice of fuel in the eighteenth‐century iron industry: the Coalbrookdale accounts reconsidered

Disquiet has remained over Hyde’s conclusions as to the costs of coke-ironmaking in the early eighteenth century. A detailed re-examination of the production costs at Coalbrookdale has confirmed his conclusions for pig iron, but not for bar iron. Coalbrookdale Forge was merely small and inefficient. Any technological difficulties in the use of coke pig iron in finery forges were overcome before 1728. However, the iron industry was depressed in the 1730s due to Russian bar iron imports. After the Swedes increased their prices from 1747, new Shropshire furnaces began making pig coke iron for forges in 1754.