Career
In 1764, he withdrew from the tobacco trade, and concentrated on trade to and contracting in new British colonies (the ceded islands—St Vincent, Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada) in the West Indies and west Africa. At the same time to aid his business in government contracts, he was elected as Member of Parliament for the venal borough of Aylesbury, which he represented until 1784, by which time the participation of MPs in government cointracting had been prohibited.
In 1765 he went into partnership with William Brownrigg of Whitehaven, taking out a lease on 4,000 acres (16 km2) of land in the Merthyr valley. obtained the mineral-rich land very cheaply, they employed Charles Wood to build Cyfarthfa forge using his patented potting and stamping process to make pig iron into bar iron. This was followed by a blast furnace at Cyfarthfa, 50 feet high and opened in 1767. Bacon took over the Plymouth Ironworks in 1766 to supply pig iron to his forge. The partnership with Brownrigg was dissolved in 1777. Bacon leased the Hirwaun ironworks in 1780.
Bacon's government contracts extended to the supply of ordnance. In 1773, after the Carron Company's guns had been withdrawn from service as dangerous, he offered to provide three cannon for a trial, made respectively with charcoal, coke, and mixed fuel. He also delivered a fourth with then 'cast solid and bored'. This gun was reported to be 'infintely better than in the ordinary way, because it makes the ordnance more compact and consequently more durable', despite the greater expense. This led to a contract in 1774. These guns were apparently cast by John Wilkinson until Bacon's contract with him ended in 1776. A year later, Bacon asked for Richard Crawshay's name to be included in his warrants, and from this time the cannon were cast at Cyfarthfa. This continued until Bacon as a Member of Parliament was disabled from undertaking government contracts in 1782, when the forge and gunfoundry business were leased some of his interests to Francis Homfray.
Read more about this topic: Anthony Bacon (industrialist)
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