[Internal south Wales Socialist League discussion document.]

Wales and the Capitalist Crisis

Capitalism and Wales

Capitalism in Wales has never been independent of either English capital or the British imperialist state. The feudal conquest of Wales prevented the emergence of an independent Welsh bourgeoisie able to compete effectively with that of England. The mid-Wales textile industry was subordinated to that of Manchester. The Welsh iron industry was developed by English iron-masters, largely out of the profits of the Bristol slave trade. Coal was also dominated by English capital, although here the smaller limited capital requirements allowed indigenous Welsh capital to stake its claim. But coal - like iron before it - depended, in the absence of a broadly-based Welsh economy, on exports. And exports in the nineteenth century depended above all else on the strength and influence of British imperialism.

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