Anthony Bacon

Anthony Bacon was an English merchant and industrialist who was credited for the emergence of Merthyr Tydfil as the iron-smelting centre of Britain.

Becoming an orpahan, he was raises by his uncle, a tobacco-merchant who introduced him to mercantile business. During the Seven Years' War, Bacon became a government contractor for shipping and supplying which was one of the first government contracts he made. He owned several ships that were active in tobacco and slave trade participating in total of six Atlantic slave trade voyages. After 1764 Bacon became focused on trade and government contracting with new British colonies in West Indies and West Africa. In 1765 he take in lease 4,000 acres (16 km2) of land in the Merthyr Valley which contained some of the best seams of coal in South Wales, iron-ore as well as limestone and an abundant supply of water for power in partnership with William Brownrigg. The next year he bought the Plymouth furnace and then Hirwaun in 1780. Bacon's government contracts extended to the supply of ordnance, and soon he emerged as the foremost supplier of cannon for British government.