The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-14 00:00:00

dared by the leading producers of either pig or
finished iron. The Lillesball Company declared
the price of their pigs as £5 lOs for cold, and
56 hot-blast ; all-mine Staffordshire pigs
likewise remained at from £4 5s to £4 10s.
Derbyshire and Leicestershire pigs were ,t 3 and
£.3 is, which is an increase of 2s Gd upon the
prices which 'would have been willingly taken in
the middle of the quarter just terminated. At
these prices vendors were very firm, and similar
advances were sought by the makers of part.
mine Staffordshire pigs. The few sales were
regulated by these quotations; hut the small
number of buyers in the market evinced a
desire to postpone purchasing till to-morrow.
Finished-iron quotations were also upheld
upon last quarter's basis—X9 and .0 12s 6d for
markezi bars of the leading houses. Between
that price and 1,7 quotations for bars were
numerous. The other kinds of iron were all
regulated upon these figures. Only a few trans-
actions were made known.
Coal was equally firm with pigs. Prices were
slronger than a quarter ago, and some sales
were made at a trifling advance, but there was
less apprehension that the crucial quotations
which regulate wages will be advanced than was
last week very generally expressed.
No drop was declared in either pig or finished
at the first quarterly meeting this year (in
January). Prices were declared without
quotable change upon the basis of £6 for cold,
and 174 15s hot-blast pigs of the Lilleshall Co.,
and £lO 12s Gd for Round Oak bars. The
minimum quotation for bars was £B, and no
difficulty at all would have been experienced in
placing orders for singles at £ll. Messrs.
Baldwin's minimum quotation was £l3. At the
Wolverhampton Quarterly Meeting in April, the
Lilleshall Co. dropped their pigs lOs a ton,
making their cold-blast 15 10s, and their hot-
blast 4 ss. The Cannock Chase Coal Company
had a day or two previously reduced their prices
in amounts ranging from 6d up to 3s per ton
(leaving their best yard coal from 14s 6d to 12s
6d a ton). Contrary to all expectation no drop
occurred in coal or finished iron, nor did it
occur in Birmingham on the following day. On
Friday, April 21st, however, the principal coal.
masters of South Staffordshire and East Wor-
cestershire met, and Lord Dudley's furnace coal
was reduced from 13s to us. Subsequently
Messrs. Baldwin and another conspicuous firm
dropped prices £1 a ton, and in Birmingham on
April 27, the principal list houses reduced
marked bars £1 a ton, making the standard £9.
with the usual 12s 6d extra for Earl Dudley's
brands. Common unmarked bars were then
selling at £7 10s, and of course the above-
mentioned drop did not apply to them. Plates
fell 20s; and Messrs. Barrow, by reducing their
qualities £2 a ton, brought their rates down to
the level of those of the trade generally, in
advance of whom Messrs. Barrows had pre-
viously been by a sovereign.
At the last (Midsummer) quarterly meeting,
prices alike for raw and finished iron were
declared unchanged upon the above quotations.
Trade was slack, but little else than a disposi-
tion to throw out feelers being noted. Stafford-
shire all-mine pigs were stronger than:they had
been, consequent upon a reductionAin make.
Hematites were freely offered at .O 12s 6d, short
weight. A fair quality of singles might have
been got at slightly under £9 10s, whilst otheis
were tolerably firm at a little less than £lO, and
"Severn " singles were quoted at £l3, and 1 B
quality of the same firm (Messrs. Baldwin) :at
1716. Common bars were to be had at 71 as a
minimum, but the more frequent rates were 71
108 and 71 ss. Some furnace coal was freely
offered at 7s. A fair quality was to be bought
readily at from 7s Gd. to Bs, with two tons in upon
a boat load.

The usual quarterly meeting of the ironmasters
of South Staffordshire and East Worcestershire
was held on Thursday in the Birmingham Ex-
change. There was a large attendance of iron-
masters, coalowners, manufacturers, and brokers
from the Midland and other districts; but the
London, Liverpool, and Bristol shipping houses
were not so numerously represented as they
have been on former occasions. It was gener-
ally understood a week ago that there would be
no alteration in prices, and this understanding
having been confirmed at Wolverhampton on
Wednesday, buyers and
,sellers were free to
enter upon their negotiations at once. Unfor-
tunately, the business offering was very small,
and the day's transactions were considerably be-
low the average. For shipment there was
scarcely anything done, but on home account and
fbr local manufacturing purposes a somewhat
better demand was experienced. Prices both of
raw and finished iron appear to have been sup-
ported of late to some extent by artificial causes.
fransactions in pig, there is reason to believe,
have been largely of a speculative nature, and
reports, industriously circulated, of an approach-
ing advance in innmaking coal have necessarily
strengthened the hands of the manufacturers of
wrought iron. Now that it is seen how little the
recent sales of pig have affected the large stocks
at the furnaces, and how reluctant the leaders
of the coal trade are to accede to the demands
of the workpeople, who are pressing on them an
advance of wages and prices, there is naturally
some reaction. Quotations, both of pig and
finished iron, are nominally stationary, but
prices are practically easier for all but special
brands. Hot-blast native all-mine pig is quoted
at 4/ 5s to 4/ 108., and cold-blast 3/ 10s. Cinder.
pig is nominally about 3/., which is the standard
also for the produce of Derbyshire and other
northern furnaces. Leading brands of bars
command still Otto 9/ 123 per ton; but good
marked iron may be had (quite it below those
rates, and unmarked iron at something under
71. Sheets of medium qualities are in tolerably
steady demand, and the market for thin sheets
for stamping purposes is rather strong, under
threats of an early advance. Coalowners report
a somewhat improving trade, both in railway and
manufacturing icoal, but the recovery is too
slight, they consider, to warrant any advance
of prices at present. lie per ton is still the
standard for Dudley furnace coal.
There were but few exhibitors' stalls. The
principle novelties were samples of Woodward's
patent molten iron-stone pavement manufactured
from slag, by a process recently described in
these columns, and a working apparatus for
multiplying circulars from an original written
with Edison's electric pen. Samples were also
exhibited of Lloyds' patent safety buyers for
blast furnaces.