Volume Three - The Pontoon Era - The decline of the coal trade at Penarth commences . . .

To summarise some of the factors relating to the decline in the South Wales coal industry in addition to declining labour relations in the UK leading to numerous strikes across many industries : -

The effects of the change from Welsh steam coal to more efficient oil fired engines of Navy and other steam ships and the fact that Rudolf Diesel invented and patented his engine design in 1892, etc.

The 'Treaty of Versailles' of June 1919 made Germany entirely responsible for all loss and damage caused under the 'War Guilt' clause which entailed reparations of 132 bn Marks.

The devaluation of the German Mark following WWI ; it was valued at 7.8 Marks per U.S. Dollar in 1919 and dropped a little to 4 trillion to the Dollar by the end of 1923! No wonder the Allies chose to redeem reparations in physical goods such as coal and steel, etc.

During the WWI war years the entire output of Welsh coal had been used to serve the Allied war effort and the main pre-war markets were forced to find alternative sources of coal, hence, much of the trade was lost forever to U.S., Australian and Chinese suppliers.

In the meantime, mining technology had taken some major productive steps forward and South Wales was left behind wanting investment and upgraded infrastructure.

The lesser known treaties of Sèvres and Lausanne directly contributed to the demise of coal in that it opened up significant access to the supply of oil from the Middle East.

Many thanks for the additional information above based upon an article published by Dr. Gethin Matthews, a senior lecturer at Swansea University. [1307] [1308]