The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-02-28 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE

The market at Wolverhampton on Wed-
nesday showed all the t vidences which the
,tate of suspense now hanging over the
;rade might have been expected to develop.
111 transactions, whether for fuel, for ore, or
.or pig or for finished iron, that could by any
luaus be held back, were postponed. Upon
.very band consumers anticipate the preval-
!leo of lower quotations, the result of the
irly reduced priee of in w materials of all
,inds, and, later on, of wages also. Men
vim 'nay be expected to know what is likrly
a take place, affirm that they will nit put.-
; at' till c at has been redneed 4s or 5s per
in, or thereabouts. Even so great a drop
that figure indicates is not improbable in
very few weeks at the latest. North Staf-
rordshire, which has been as "staut " as
South Staffordshire in the matter of coal
quotations, has begun to give way con-
picuouslv, Messrs. Stanier and Co., of the
Silverdale and Apcdale, and other colleries
there, announce a reduction of 3s 4d per tan,
aid there are here and there instances in
the same division of the county in which 2s
fhl has been taken off. Whilst further re-
ductions are to take place in Lancashire, and
the prices in Belgium have fallen nearly f") 0
per cent., and the ironmakers in that country
.ire able seriously to embarrass the finished-
iron producers here, it is impossible that the
protectionist rig which has been so long
practised in this district, to the very serious
loss of every industry in it, can be much
longer continued. Curses loud and deep, it
is hardly hyperbole to say, are heaped upon
the head of the colliery interest in South
Staffordshire, whose selfishness is workiing
grave business mischief upon every haffd.
Pardonable irritation is displayed on every
manufacturing circle in South Staffordshire
outside the colliery interest. Men ascribe to
it loss 4 work, and masters loss of orders;
;old the feeling makes consumers submit to
great inconvenience rather than buy 1 cwt.
of iron that they can do without for even a
few days ; for, with coal reduced even 4s per
ton, iron must be declared down consider-
ably. Purchasers look for a drop in finished
if .22. The question of wages, both in col-
liers' and ironworkers' wages, continues to
occasion much consideration. As to the
latter, it is made known that the committee
which was appointed in December to consider
the arrangements for establishing a sliding
scale for regulating wages in Staffordshire
and the North of England, holds its first
meeting at the Midland Hotel, Derby. The
deliberations, however, will be quite private.
The maximnm and minimum are already
fixeil, and all that is to be done is to devise
a scheme which shall fluctuate between these
poi ati as the realised selling prices advance
or recede. No doubt it will 1) d;ffi-
au itt i decide upon a method which -A-Hi •.a sat-
isfactory to all ; but the gentlemen empioyed
in the work ar- about the most experieneod
that the two distri As would Itl:e :urnished.
T:It• ii•tines of the reprtsenting
this district are :—Mr. O. J. Baker, of thin
Chillington Iron Company, and chairman of
the Irournast.ers• A ssociation ; Mr. Walter
Williams, Wednesbury Oak Ironworks; Mr.
W S. Roden, Shelton Bar Ironworks ; Mr.
Capper, Mr. Holden. and Mr. Ancutt. From
toe North there are Mr David Dale, Presi-
dent of tha Board of A •.tration ; Mr. Wm.
Whitwell, the Deputy-president ; and Mr. J.
fluntor, of Consett The Secretaries, Mr.