The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-12-13 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE.

WOLVERHAMProN, Wednesday.

The market was not chacterised by much
business. The ironworks generally are do-
ing very little, though there are some few
exceptions. Wherever makers of excellent
iron will give way only a little the market
responds fairly, and merchants are said to
be accumulating orders till there shall be a
drop, for which most people are looking.
There was much discussion during the
afternoon as to the probable issue of the
meeting of the Iron Trade Conciliation
Board for this district, which is to come off
in this town on Friday. The bulk of the
ironmasters regarded the proposition which
the leaders of the trade have agreed to,
whereby it will be proposed to give the pud-
diets wages throughout the first quarter of
next year equal to a reduction of only 9d a
ton upon the present scale (of 13s 3d per
ton), as altogether better than the condition
of the frith) warranted. Nevertheless, they
w4uld rather consent to that, if it shoulu
contribute to the bringing about of an agree-
ment which could be worked with ease, and
that would remove the uncertainty now pre.
ceding every readjustment of the wages
scale, than they would stickle for terms
more favourable to employers. It was also
thou& Celt fixing the nio:liTautti of pay-
ment at 12s 6d per toil a very :liberal spirit
had been displayed, inasmuch as the average
wages in the twenty-two years which ter-
minated with the close of 1871 was 4s per
ton under that figure. Yet it is this 8s 6d
which the masters now suggest shall be the
minimum rate. On the other hand, it has
to be noted that the average per ton for
marked bars during the same twenty-two
years was £7 18s 10d. Even as it is alto-
gether improbabile that so low an average
will characterise the prices in the ensuing
twenty-two years, so also it is fair to con-
clude that the men are justified in expecting
much better wages in the future than in the
past; :Lad there is no doubt they will get
them. The plan now proposed, it was
pointed out, contemplates such a peop )r-
-tionate advantage, though the greater strin-
gency of the coal market could, it is argued,
he justly used as a reason why less satisfac-
tory terms might have been proposed by the
Masters. The highest rate of wages p Lid in
the twenty-two years as to which statistics
have been prepared, was 10s 6d per ton ;
.and the highest price of bar iron at that
period was £ll per ton. It remained at
that figure, however, only three quarters.
whilst for eleven quarters it was as low as
£6. It was at that price throughout 14:74
and 1851, and during the Srst three :palters
of 1852. If history is to repeat itself in the
Bri ,sh iron trade, then the present and re-
cent enormous prices must soon give way to
a prolonged time of comparative_steadiness.
was tae price of marked bar-iron in the
last triut of 1852 ; but so great was the
?xeltement at that jam:tare, that the price
in the iirt qaerter of the next year was no
less t,,1 £ll. £1 was lost in the next
quarter ; wa4 the price in the Lust half of
the scar ; £lO was the figure in the first
three quarters of 14, but £ll was again
obtained in time last cia;:rtur of that year, and
the 116it'qq:,vier of the n.,tt. A eadden drop
now occurred, and £m Arti the quotation in
the two middle qua,te:s ef I ;£9 was
got in the last quartet. uf.
.tleit year, and
thron4hout 1856 and ; te be followed
kya r.aln 'than tv,lll t,i Z 7 in the two
wing the lu..t if of Mit. after
:hree prey' Its at £7 lOs and
date .44 Lon, ythire

tr