Dear Andy,
The time period you mention was not an easy one financially. Lead mining was
certainly in the doldrums, and slate also was taking a turn for the worse -
let alone other things.
There is nothing new with fluctuations in markets (money, metal and others),
that we see these days, they happened just the same then as they do now. The
1890's 'were/was' the turning point in a progressive slip in British Home
trade: to use slate for example, by 1914 the market had suffered such a slump
for ten progressive years, that labour numbers had nearly been halved
(Ffestiniog area specifically) - a very significant loss - the tonnage produced was
significantly less, and the value of same had dropped considerably. However,
as in today's world, the costs of the materials needed to produce everything
went up... in other words the 1890's saw the start of 'inflation' as we know
it today. In brief, much of the cause being the Empire was then sufficiently
industrialised to be sending back far more than was originally being sent out
to get it started - let alone developing countries elsewhere exporting.
By 1913 or thereabouts, the situation was becoming a semi/mini 'world
depression' (later to be far superseded by the 1930's Crash of course), and the
resulting destabilising effect was indeed a contributing factor to WW1. (You can
also get a parellel insight into the start of WW2 from this as well).
Anyway, similar was the case from 1890 onwards (if you get my drift), in
that product values went down, and operating costs went up... the normal
viscious circle that we know today! - "Nothing new under the Sun" as they say!
This is just brief 'potted' info. from immediate memory as I write, but it
will at least give you a rough insight into what was going on at the time. To
get the full picture you will have to research the financial period and
commodity market movements from 1888 until 1900 to get the precise info. you want.
Regards, Bernard
|