Today, Barry is a quiet seaside resort town with a population of about 40, 000, located 8 miles southwest of Cardiff. A century ago, this town prospered as the world's largest coal export port; however, it is difficult to see any traces of this past prosperity in the vacant Barry dock today. The aim of this paper is to consider the development of Barry Dock and Railway Company (BDR), the main source of the prosperity of the town of Barry before the First World War. As the name properly indicates, one of the outstanding features of this company was that it integrated a large wet-dock and a railway leading from the dock up to Rhondda Valley, the world's largest coal mining region at that time.
The principal impetus of the establishment of BDR was the reaction of the valley's coal owners to the monopolistic and inefficient Bute and Penarth Docks and Taff Vale Railway companies. Due to the increasing rapid development of the coal industry, the dock and railway companies were unable to cope with the demands of the freighters. At the same time, capital accumulation among the coal owners made it possible to construct large alternative facilities at Barry.
No sooner was BDR established on 18th July 1889 than it had an immediate impact upon the existing docks and railways. Of all of them, it was the Penarth Dock that was most seriously affected. The amount of coal exported from Penarth was halved in 1890. The profitability of the Taff Vale Railway also declined; its dividends dropped from 15% in 1888 to 2.25% in 1891. Notwithstanding these disastrous impacts, coal exports in the region as a whole increased considerably due to the widening dock capacity and the reduction of railway freight rates. The performance of all rival companies improved in the long run.
Although miners' strikes interrupted coal production intermittently, coal exports from Barry dock increased significantly, and BDR was able to maintain high rates of dividends until the end of the First World War. One potential problem in trade composition was the overdependence on coal export trade. It is true that the rate of imports also increased simultaneously with the population increase of the town; however, it never exceeded 7% of total trade. But the effect of this dangerous overdependence on coal trade did not appear until after the end of the First World War.

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