_Steel House._
In the beginning of the last century, a furnace was erected on the
outside of the town, for the conversion of iron into steel, and houses
being erected in its vicinity, they were denominated Steelhouse-lane.
That the woollen manufactory is of great importance to this kingdom
must be admitted, but if the demand for fine steel goods should ever
revive again, and be equally brisk as it was thirty years back, there
is not in my mind a doubt, but the iron and steel trade would produce
more profit to the nation than that of woollen, if it does not at the
present time. Wool is produced from the surface of the earth, and iron
is by dint of labour collected from its bowels; consider the numerous
hands employed in the mines and the furnaces to bring it into a rough
state, either for casting or the forge, and when it is in a proper
state for either, the endless variety of articles it is manufactured
into; the whole export of which, being all produced by labour, is
every shilling of it profit to the nation. Gold can only be wrought
in any quantities to a certain determinate value, but who can fix the
price at which articles made of steel may be sold.
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