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Errata. The Economic History Review 59: 1, 64 The production and consumption of bar iron in early modern England and Wales. An estimate made of the bar iron production in England shows two periods when production grew rapidly, 1540‐1620 and 1785‐1810. Both of these were related to the adoption of new technology‐the finery forge in the first case, and potting and stamping and then puddling in the second. Imports of iron from Spain declined sharply after 1540, but those from Sweden became significant from the mid‐seventeenth century, and those from Russia after 1730. Consumption grew rapidly in the late sixteenth century, and again during the eighteenth. Hence, the industrial revolution was the culmination of a long period of growth.

The iron industry was fully industrialized by the seventeenth century. The initial ironmasters were landowners, with clerks managing their ironworks. Professional ironmasters emerged from the clerks by the 1600s. The largest iron businesses (such as that of the Foley family described here) had general managers. Loans (secured by bonds) were important for business finance, including for paying up share capital. Accounting varied between charge and discharge-oriented systems of double entry bookkeeping and those maintained according to the classic Italian method. Cost accounting was not systematically practised, but yields from raw materials were monitored and the information contained in the financial accounts contained data relevant to performance decision making. Managers were trained on the job by experienced managers.Foley, iron production, double entry, Italian method, management, cost accounting, bonds,

Disquiet has remained over Hyde's conclusions as to the costs of coke‐ironmaking in the early eighteenth century. A detailed re‐examination of the production costs at Coalbrookdale has confirmed his conclusions for pig iron, but not for bar iron. Coalbrookdale Forge was merely small and inefficient. Any technological difficulties in the use of coke pig iron in finery forges were overcome before 1728. However, the iron industry was depressed in the 1730s due to Russian bar iron imports. After the Swedes increased their prices from 1747, new Shropshire furnaces began making pig coke iron for forges in 1754.