A world of copper: introducing Swansea, globalization and the Industrial Revolution

Copper making in the Swansea district began in the 1690s and continued down to the 1920s. This unusually lengthy industrial history divides into two distinct periods on either side of 1830. Before 1830 Swansea’s smelters were supplied with ores from within the Hiberno-British Isles; after 1830 Swansea’s supply chains went global, stretching to Australasia, Latin America, southern Africa and the Caribbean. It was a moment of precocious globalization. This brief article sets out a chronology for Swansea copper’s global phase and reviews the main mining zones from which ore was drawn. The outward flow of British capital and industrial migrants, largely Cornish and Welsh, is also described.