the solution to the dilemma lay in the successful application of coke to the smelting of iron ore ( coal had long been used in the further working of the pig ) . in Belgium this was first done in 1823 at Seraing . almost simultaneously another British invention of great importance made its first appearance . this occurred in 1821 when Michael Orban built the first Belgian puddling furnace at Grivegn&amp;eacute;e . puddled iron and steel were vital to the new engineering industries . the new techniques spread rapidly . by the middle thirties there were more than twenty coke-fired blast furnaces in operation . their success was made easier by the fact that the Belgian coalfields , especially those of Hainaut , were already producing much more than other continental fields , and had a long history of economic importance behind them . the outcrop areas had been in use for many centuries . in the coal industry , like the iron , technological change was rapid in the early years of the century . perhaps the most important single advance was the harnessing of the steam-engine to raise coal from the pit bottom to the surface . this took place first at Bois-du-Luc in Hainaut in 1807 : four years later Michel Orban brought the system to Li&amp;egrave;ge province when he installed the new winding gear at his Plomterie colliery ( in both areas steam drainage of water from the mines , initially with Newcomen engines , had long been a commonplace ) . the ventilation of pits was improved . their safety was enhanced by developments such as the introduction of the Davy safety-lamp ( again a result of Orban &apos;s initiative at Plomterie ) in 1817 . Joseph Chaudron with his cuvelage en fer found a better way of strengthening mining shafts with a revetment of iron . the production of coal grew rapidly . by the decade 1831-40 it was averaging 2,917,000 tons per annum ; in the following decade the annual output was 4,815,000 tons . a small group of able and determined men was rapidly transforming the economy of the country - the Orbans , the Bauwens , the Hudsons , the Leli&amp;egrave;vres ; but above all the Cockerill dynasty , whose history , as an epitome of Belgian industrial growth during the first half of the century is worth sketching . continental industrial advance in the early decades of the nineteenth century was largely a matter of absorbing the lessons afforded by the British example . frequently it was an Englishman who taught the lesson . it is ironical that the Englishman whose family was to do more than any other to give Belgium the lead for many decades should have been found out of work in the country which was ultimately to advance further and faster along the road to industrial achievement than any other continental state . William Cockerill , the founder of the line , was discovered by a member of the Verviers firm of Simonis et Biolley in Hamburg in 1798 . within two years he was producing textile machinery . in 1802 his two sons , James and John , built their own textile machinery factory in Li&amp;egrave;ge . it was immensely successful , and a decade later in 1812 was producing spinning and carding machines at a rate of several hundreds a year . the Cockerill interests expanded rapidly . an important stage was reached in 1817 when their Seraing iron-works was built : an old episcopal palace was converted into a machine shop for the construction of steam-engines . in 1823 James retired from the firm , making over his share to his remarkable brother . this was a significant year for John in another direction also since it was then that he disproved the belief , general at the time , that Belgian coal would not coke satisfactorily . he supervised the installation of the first coke-fed blast furnace in Belgium at Seraing . this plant was capable of a daily output as high as ten tons , or more than most charcoal furnaces could manage in a week . by 1829 the Li&amp;egrave;ge district was producing over 7,000 tons of pig-iron a year , chiefly at Seraing . in 1835 the first continental-built railway locomotive was constructed there . two years later Cockerill &apos;s enthusiasm for technical excellence led him to introduce the hot-blast system into his Seraing plant , at a time when Neilson &apos;s invention was less than a decade old , and still little used in Britain outside Scotland . in 1840 shortly before the death of John Cockerill , his Seraing works alone employed 2,000 men and were reckoned the largest in Europe ( eight years later Krupp , the colossus of the future , employed only 70 men ) . this man , described by Schnabel as the first truly princely businessman since the days of the Fugger , travelled constantly to foster his interests , which extended over most of western Europe north of the Alps . his range of interest , knowledge and energy were invaluable to the Belgian metal , engineering and textile industries . the new developments of coalfield industry had revolutionized the scale of production of certain industries and lowered unit costs of production ; but it is easily possible to exaggerate the degree to which the country outside the coalfields had come under the sway of the new coal age . older methods of production were not entirely replaced even in those industries which were most changed by the new conditions . this was true , for example , even of the iron industry . in 1838 sixty-six out of the eighty-nine blast furnaces in the country were still charcoal fed . it was not until the middle fifties that the Semois iron industry in the Belgian Ardennes , which was entirely dependent on charcoal , fell into decline , although its annual capacity , which never much exceeded 10,000 tons , had for many years been far outdistanced by Seraing . the implications of the new age were to be seen in Belgium not only in the positive achievements of the age - the great growth in coalfield industry and the exciting possibilities of the new and developing railways ; but equally strikingly in a negative sense . in the 1840s the largest of the traditional industries of Belgium , the linen industry of Flanders , was in crisis , a fatal one as it proved , because the Flemish spinsters could not compete with the machine-made thread of the English mills . since there were estimated to be 280,000 spinsters in the linen industry in 1840 ( often , of course , only partly dependent on their spinning for a livelihood ) the negative side was as keenly felt and widely recognized as the positive side represented by the work of the Cockerills and their rivals . there was a whip to goad as well as a carrot to entice . the new pattern of industrial life which was spreading to the continent from England affected Belgium a little earlier than other countries . within the Austrasian field it was two Belgian areas , Hainaut and Li&amp;egrave;ge , which were first to use the two key advances of the new age extensively . the coke-fired blast furnace and the steam-engine were commonplaces there when they were still rare in Nord and almost unknown in the Ruhr . it was natural , therefore , that Belgian men and Belgian money should have taken the lead within the field even in French and German areas . capital , technical expertise and entrepreneurs proved quite footloose within the field in its formative years , seeking employment always where the expectation of profit was greatest . since it is important to the theme of the other chapters of this first part of the book to show that in such matters national boundaries were seldom of great consequence in the early years , it is worthwhile considering the extent of Belgian participation in the development of areas of the Austrasian field outside Belgium before considering Nord , Aachen and the Ruhr separately . the Belgian influence in the Nord . between Nord and Hainaut there had long been close ties . the Mons portion of the Hainaut coalfield had been occupied by France during the war of the Spanish succession from 1701 to 1709 , and during this short time French capital gained a foothold in the coal industry of the area which proved long lasting . the industry of Nord became heavily dependent upon coal drawn from this source during the eighteenth century , and remained so to a lesser and declining extent into the nineteenth . it was recognition of the danger of this dependence combined with the high duties on Belgian coal which prompted a persistent search for a French source of coal in Nord itself ( when this search culminated in a great success at Anzin in 1734 , the vicomte de Desandrouin , whose tenacity under disappointment led to the discovery , imported 200 Belgian miners and their families from Charleroi to help to bring the new pits into production ) . in spite of the development of local production , Nord &apos;s dependence on Belgian coal remained considerable , and was a source of weakness and distress in troubled times . towards the end of the century in the revolutionary wars an Austrian threat to cut off supplies of coal to Nord caused consternation among the local manufacturers . they feared to see their commerce and manufactures completely destroyed by competition and the interruption in the supply of Austrian coal . Nord was as dependent upon Belgium for pig-iron for her metal industries as she was for coal , even before the obsolescence of charcoal smelting . the pays de Li&amp;egrave;ge supplied the great bulk of the needs of the Maubeuge and Valenciennes areas , the two chief groups of metal-using communes in the department . there were only two blast furnaces in Nord at the time of the revolution , at Hayon and Fourmies : and it was said that these were preserved from unsuccessful competition only by the tariff on Belgian iron . at the turn of the century , therefore , French dependence physically upon Belgian materials was very marked in the heavy industries ; but Belgian men and money were of little importance , and she had no clear-cut technological lead . the new century brought no immediate change . indeed the second period of French occupation of Belgian soil served only to accentuate the existing pattern . in 1814 the completion of the Mons-Cond&amp;eacute; canal increased the ease with which Mons coal might be sent to Nord ( ten years later the opening of the Saint-Quentin canal allowed the passage of Mons coal by a cheap water route all the way to the Paris market ) . as the years passed , however , Belgium did more than supply coal and raw pig for the iron industry : Belgian firms took a leading part in the establishment of modern works in Nord . in 1849 the largest metal works in Nord was the Belgian S A Hauts-fourneaux , forges et laminoirs de Hautmont , near Maubeuge . it had been built in 1842 , and employed more than 400 workers . it was only one of several Belgian metal firms which became established in the Maubeuge area in the forties and fifties to gain access to the French market , or even , as in the case of Victor Dupont at Sous-le-Bois to avoid labour difficulties at home . Maubeuge lay less than thirty miles up the valley of the Sambre from Charleroi , one of the two largest centres of the Belgian iron industry . its metal industries were an extension across the national frontier of the industries of Charleroi : its economic life was orientated to Charleroi . the penetration of Belgian industry and entrepreneurs is therefore very understandable . Belgian influence extended further , however . there was at least one Belgian metal venture in the Valenciennes metal region - the rolling mills at Blanc-Misseron : and Belgian influence in Nord &apos;s most important industry , textiles , was important . Belgian capital and personnel were seldom directly concerned in the industry ; but Belgian textile machinery found a ready market in Nord . once again Cockerill was the great stimulus . Mahaim , after describing the early days of the Cockerill plant in Li&amp;egrave;ge , added , then , with an astonishing rapidity in view of the slowness of communications , the clothing centres of northern France took part in the re-equipment . once Cockerill was established at Li&amp;egrave;ge , his client&amp;egrave;le appeared in France . while Belgian influence in Nord was considerable , it was less marked here than in the parts of the Austrasian field which lay to the east . although Belgian coal and coke was indispensable to Nord ; Belgian firms in the van in the metal industry ; and Belgian technological leadership often apparent , even in textiles , French capital and industry could show reason for a claim to near equality . 