H. Kahlmeter's report from England and France (1718–1727)

This report was compiled by Henric Kalmeter (1693–1750), one of the most experienced Swedish mining travellers of the early eighteenth century. Born in Falun and trained within the Swedish mining administration, Kalmeter entered Bergskollegium in 1714 and spent much of the following decade travelling abroad on official assignments. Between 1718 and 1727 he visited Britain, France, the Netherlands and German mining districts, producing a series of extensive reports intended to strengthen Swedish mining, metallurgy, and manufacturing. Later he became a commissioner and assessor in Kommerskollegium, gained distinction as a compiler of Swedish trade statistics, and played an important role in the development of Swedish cobalt production.

The present volume concerns Kalmeter's investigations in England, Scotland, Wales and France. Beginning with Scottish lead mining at Leadhills, he proceeds to a lengthy examination of the industrial districts of northern and western England. The report provides detailed descriptions of lead mines, coalfields, ironworks, steel manufacture, copper smelting, brass production, salt works, glassworks and metalworking industries. Particularly extensive sections are devoted to the coal-mining districts around Newcastle, the iron-producing regions of Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Sussex, and the copper and brass industries centred on Bristol and its hinterland.

One of the most distinctive features of the manuscript is its close attention to industrial technology. Kalmeter records the construction and operation of blast furnaces, fineries, chaferies, rolling mills, slitting mills, wire works, steel furnaces, lead-smelting furnaces, copper works, cannon foundries and brass mills. He provides technical descriptions of mining methods, pumping machinery, coal extraction, ore processing and metallurgical practice, often including dimensions, production figures, wages and operating costs. Particularly notable are his accounts of English coal mining, the use of early steam-powered pumping engines, copper smelting in Cornwall and Wales, and the manufacture of steel, brass and iron goods.

The second half of the manuscript is devoted to France, where Kalmeter combines observations on mining and metallurgy with broader discussions of economic organisation. He surveys ironworks across many French provinces, examines lead, copper and tin mining in the Pyrenees, and provides extensive descriptions of Cornish mining methods for tin and copper as a comparative model. He also records information on minting, precious-metal refining, brass manufacture, copper processing, slate quarries, marble quarries and the administration of mining districts.

Unlike many contemporary travel accounts, Kalmeter's report is as much an economic survey as a technical description. Alongside mine workings and furnaces, he consistently notes production volumes, prices, wages, taxation, transport systems, imports, exports and patterns of consumption. The result is a detailed account of the industrial and mineral economy of Britain and France in the 1720s, viewed through the eyes of a Swedish official whose purpose was not simply to observe foreign mining technology, but to understand the wider commercial systems that sustained it.

For more on Henrik Kalmeter and his travels, see:
Svante Lindqvist: Technology on trial: the introduction of steam power technology into Sweden, 1715–1736 (Uppsala, 1984), pp 121–127.
Sven Rydberg, Svenska studieresor till England under frihetstiden (Uppsala, 1951).
Smout, T.C. ed., "Journal of Henry Kalmeter’s travels in Scotland, 1719-1720" in Scottish Industrial History. A Miscellany, Scottish History Society, Fourth Series, 14 (1978)
Justin Brooke (ed.), The Kalmeter Journal: The Journal of a Visit to Cornwall, Devon and Somerset in 1724–25 of Henric Kalmeter (1693–1750) (Truro: Twelveheads Press, 2001). This annotated English edition covers the south-western section of Kalmeter's journey and provides extensive commentary on the mining and metallurgical sites discussed in his report.