At the rise of the era of the synthetic colourants, the attention of chemists and merchants in different countries was focused on the invention, production and sale of the dyes. In 1862, the German chemist August Wilhelm Hofmann expressed firm confidence that Britain would be the leading producer of synthetic dyes for many years to come because of its coal reserves, its huge production of coal tar and its enormous market for textiles. He was wrong. Although Britain and France were the leading producers for the first decade or so of the developing synthetic dye industry, in the long run they became small players; it was Germany that came to dominate the global market before 1914. Initially German manufacturers copied British and French synthetic dyes, but when their patents expired, the leading German and Swiss firms entered the British and French markets successfully and at the outbreak of the First World War, the German dye industry possessed a world market share of about 85%. In 1913 the British and French global market shares had been reduced and Switzerland had become the second-largest producer in the world.