According to Parson and White's directory of Cumberland and Westmorland, published in 1829, ‘amongst [Whitehaven's] manufactures are linen, sailcloth, checks, damasks and drapier, cabinet goods, earthenware, colours, copperas, snuff and tobacco, soap, candles, anchors, cables, nails etc etc’. Such a list reflected the port's maritime interests, and the demands of overseas trade. Yet there are some notable omissions for a region abounding in coal and iron ore, and conveniently situated for smelting copper, lead and other metals. The absence of heavy industries from the list was at least partly the result of failure to build upon the advantages provided by coal in the first half of the eighteenth century. The importance of diversifying was certainly recognized locally, most notably by the Lowthers. Sir James Lowther claimed in 1721 to be ‘providing to have proper manufactures put forward at Whitehaven and [to be] ready to join in promoting the same at other places’. Like his father, he was aware of the ‘absolute necessity of setting up manufactures to keep the people employed at Whitehaven after the near coals are wrought out’. Recognition of the problem was one thing; positive action was another. Various coal-consuming industries were promoted in eighteenth-century Cumberland, but many of these were short-lived and local industry remained generally small-scale. The region continued to depend on the coal trade for its prosperity. In relying on a single economic function west Cumberland was not altogether untypical; other regions similarly placed also had great difficulty widening their horizons, notably Tyneside and Shropshire. West Cumberland's shortcomings were related to the structure of the local economy, the size of population, the inadequacy of enterprise, and a shortage of capital.