Baltic Iron in the Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century

The eighteenth century is often viewed as the heroic age of the British iron industry - a time of triumphant technological progress. In fact, it was an age of thwarted ambition, when the take-up of new technologies proved frustratingly slow. The eighteenth century was more accurately the age of Baltic iron. Swedish and Russian iron surged onto the British market, meeting the demand that British ironmasters could not satisfy.