“ These tests, carried out under Nixon’s personal directions, proved highly successful, and in due course the French government gave him a contract for Welsh coal for the French navy. Nixon’s visit to Nantes laid the foundations of the Welsh steam-coal trade, English manufacturers and shipowners imitating the example of their French rivals. At first Nixon only sold the coal on commission, but eventually acquired what appeared to him a prospective field for steam-coal in the Aberdare valley, and after seven years’ working at last struck a rich seam. ”