The International Competitiveness of the Biscayan Iron and Steel Industry (1880-1913)

This study has a double objective: to provide foreign colleagues with an insight into the controversy surrounding the international competitiveness of pig iron produced in Bilbao and also to present previously unpublished documentation regarding the European iron industry, which I have retrieved from the historical archive of Credit Lyonnais of Paris. This information includes the costs of Biscayan, French, British, German and Belgium pig iron broken down into five components (iron ore, coke, flux, labour and other costs), which is useful in determining the reasons why the pig iron from Bilbao became less competitive. The article is made up of three parts. Firstly, I will synthesise the controversy surrounding the competitiveness of the Basque iron and steel industry. Then I will present the itemised costs which provide information to illustrate how Biscayan pig iron was not competitive because it was produced with English coal which was more expensive than that consumed by the European factories located "on top of" or near coal seams. The article will finish with a section that, by way of conclusion, explains the comparative advantage and disadvantage of Bilbao, applying the first model of Alfred Weber's Theory of Industrial Location to three technological advances, occurring between the 1860s and 1913 (malleable iron, Bessemer steel and Thomas steel).