John Taylor

“ In some instances officers regularly educated to the profession of mining, are appointed and paid by the state for managing the executive departments. With such advantages it is probable that poorer mines may be worked, than in countries destitute of them, and where they must be undertaken entirely at private risk; yet it is found that the enterprize and ingenuity of individuals is equal to very considerable efforts, and that their calculations of real profit are often more unquestionable than in government undertakings. ”

“ If the spirit which is excited by the prospect of gain can be infused into a great portion of the persons employed on any object of this sort; and if the interest of the proprietors of mines can be made to go hand in hand with that of their workmen in their operations, a great degree of united effort may be reasonably expected to follow such a system, which being advantageous to all parties in proportion to their exertion, enlists at once their combined efforts into the service of the common good. ”

“ The value of property even in mines that are established and productive, cannot be determined by any definite rule. They are liable to great and important changes, leading from great gains sometimes even to considerable loss, and on the other hand emerging from a state of nearly balanced cost and return to that of great and rapid profit. ”

“ The proportion of the value of the ore to be allowed the workmen, must depend on the amount they can procure in a given time and at a given expense. Therefore the size and productiveness of the lode, the hardness of the ground, the quality of the ore, and the cost of hauling to the surface, as well as dressing it for sale, and the market price of the metal, are important elements in the calculation. ”

“ The mines of England have no assistance from the government, but must rely for their success upon their own resources, and the spirit and energy of their owners; and it is probably to this cause that we may attribute the activity and economy which, when their constitutions are duly examined, may be found to prevail in the principal mining districts. ”

“ A deep old mine which has been abandoned, is undertaken with a chance of less profit and a certainty of greater risk, than a new and promising discovery. In the first case encouragement is often held out, by fixing very moderate dues, while in the other, so much is too frequently demanded and given, as to prevent that share of profit accruing to the adventurers which is due to the great risk constantly attendant on all mining pursuits. ”

“ Tribute is payment for raising or dressing ore by a certain part of its real value when merchantable, and it is this part of the system that is deserving of most attention, both on account of the excitement it produces to discover ore and to raise it cheaply, as already noticed, and on account of the perfect state to which the arrangements with the working miners under this head have been brought.
Dressing contracted for at the surveys is seldom for more than the waste or leavings of the tributors, the ores raised on tribute being made merchantable under the same contract ”

“ As the mine proceeds, every adventurer may value his share according to his own opinion of the prospect of success, and therefore considerable diversity in this respect may arise. In some concerns the value of shares may rapidly improve by the discovery of ore or favourable symptoms, and be soon estimated at much more than the amount of cost paid; in others, the chance of success may be constantly lessening, and a reduction in the value of shares will be proportional. ”

“ The payment in Cornwall being in exact proportion to the selling value of the ores, which is there settled very accurately according to the metal contained in them, not only instigates the miner to discover and produce as much as he can, but leads him to consider every circumstance which may diminish the expence of returning it, or may enable him to produce the greatest quantity of each metal at the lowest charge of dressing as well as raising. ”

“ Where the majority of the property of a mine is in the hands of those who look to their contracts for the supply of materials as a source of profit, no check can well be devised to guard the interest of the other adventurers, and it might become a question with any person about to engage in a mine under such circumstances. ”

“ Mining has often got into great disrepute as a mode of employing money, from a want of due consideration of all these circumstances in the persons who have engaged their property in this way; artful men may have aided the delusion in many instances, and in many others a pertinacious adherence to adventures of but little hope may have aggravated the disappointment. ”

“ The mode of levying the dues on the gross produce of a mine, tends to discourage enterprize, where considerable expense is incurred by the adventurers without an immediate return. It seems reasonable that the land-owners should contribute something in favor of that exertion which so often leads to their great advantage.
If an equitable mode of assessing the dues in some proportion to the net profit, could be devised, and was liberally and fairly acted upon, it would probably tend more than any thing else to the encouragement of mining. ”

“ The general detail of management is often delegated to one person, who controls and superintends the whole affairs of the mine; most commonly this person is one of the parties concerned in the undertaking, and one who from having made the professions his regular pursuit, and having, as is often the case, the care of several mines, is well fitted for so important a task. ”

“ The grant for working a mine is called a set, and is usually taken by one or more persons from the proprietor of the land in which a load maybe found, except in such cases of tin-mines as are anciently embounded according to the provisions of the stannary laws, whereby a right of working for this metal is obtained. ”

“ Thus the owners of the mine have the advantage of all the intellect and skill that the men collectively possess, and have only to guard against the chances of fraud which such a system may be supposed to be subject to, but which are in fact under intelligent and faithful agents of too trifling a nature to be accounted of any importance. ”

“ Copper ores do not bear a price exactly proportioned to the quantity of metal they contain, some ores being more intractable in the fire than others or yielding copper of an inferior quality.
From repeated experiment the smelting companies know the effect that the mixture of particular ores has in the furnace upon each other, depending on the nature of the mineralizing substance or the kind of matrix which enters into the mass. ”

“ A concern still profitable to a considerable degree, may have all the symptoms of speedy decay, while on the other hand mines which are producing but little, or are even yet burdensome to their proprietors, may be those in which the greatest chance of ultimate success is probable. ”

“ The work of the mines, on the surface as well as underground, is universally performed by contract, and in this particular the practice of this district is probably similar to that of other mining establishments in different parts of the kingdom. Day work is in general disrepute in the stannaries, and is seldom resorted to, but where jobs are to be performed which either hardly admit of a previous estimate, or are too trifling to be worth contracting for ”

“ The smelting copper ores is a much more difficult operation than that of tin, and requires a very expensive establishment and the investment of an immense capital.
There are about 15 copper companies, and they have all agents and assay officers in Cornwall; there is a weekly meeting at some place near the great mines, called a ticketing, where all the agents of the copper companies attend. At these ticketing the ores of different mines allotted in suitable parcels are offered for sale. ”

“ Dressing the ores by tribute tends to produce accurate calculation as to the amount of labour which can be afforded to all the different varieties, and it has become therefore the common practice to regulate these processes by a constant reference to the assay, which prevents a waste of metal on the one hand, or a useless expence on the other. ”

“ The rate of earnings in tribute is extremely uncertain, and the employment is consequently speculative in a great degree. If a set of men working on a poor part of the lode where they may have agreed for seven or eight shillings in the pound, discover a bunch of ore rich enough to set at two or three shillings, they earn money very rapidly, and instances have often occurred where a set of miners have divided more than one hundred pounds a man for two months work. ”

“ On the whole probably mining does not yield any great profit to the adventurers, but there are numerous cases of extraordinary gain, and these are probably nearly balanced by more numerous concerns in which loss is incurred, the latter however, if taken individually, being generally much less in amount than the former. ”

“ On the other hand, when the lode fails, and becomes poor, being obliged to go on with the contract, the men may at the end have their account in debt, not having even enough to pay for the articles they consume.
The cases of extraordinary earnings probably benefit the owners of the mine much more than those in which the men are indifferently paid. They are not likely to happen often, and when they do, they are attendant on some discovery favourable in the first instance to the men, but eventually much more so to the owners. ”

“ The peculiar system invented and gradually improved to its present state in the mines of Cornwall, and more recently adopted in the undertakings of the same kind in the adjoining county, so completely answer the purpose of combining the interests of the working miner with those of his employer, that if benefit is to be expected from such a plan, it is worth describing, as a, detail which may furnish hints that may prove useful to all who are interested in the subject. ”

“ When the mine becomes productive, the accounts are closed at the same periods, and the profit divided to the adventurers in the same manner. A balance to answer the advances made to the men, and other contingencies, is usually left in the hands of the purser or principal agent. ”

“ But where the mercantile part of the adventurers hold a smaller part of the property, contracts of this sort, and the appointment of agents being under the controul of the majority, they may easily take measures to secure the purchase of all articles at a fair price, without depriving their fellow adventurers of that preference which their interest in the mine fairly entitles them to. ”

“ The men who worked it last usually put it up, asking frequently double what they mean to take; this they do, not so much in the expectation that it will influence the agents, as with the view of deterring other men from opposing them. Offers are then made at lower prices, which go on until no one is inclined to bid less, when the captain throws up a small stone, and declares who is the last offerer. ”

“ The tutwork is divided into lots, called bargains; each bargain requiring a certain set of men, and the gang so employed is always called a pair of men, let the number be what it may. Shafts have from 4 to 12 men, levels from 2 to 6 men in a pair: one usually agrees for the whole, and he is called the taker.
The tribute is set in pitches, each including at certain defined space of ground, limited very accurately, and each pitch employs from 2 to 6 men. ”

“ The plan of making the contracts with the miners, which it is believed is peculiar to Cornwall and Devon, and which holds a distinguished place in the economy of the mines, is that of periodically bringing all the work to a kind of public auction. ”

“ In the deep expensive mines the lord's dues do not often exceed a fifteenth or eighteenth part of the whole produce of ore, and sometimes they do not amount to more than a twenty-fourth, or even a thirty-second proportion. ”

“ They produce great energy and activity not only in those who benefit from them, but animate all the others, who increase their exertion in hopes of some similar discovery; they encourage competition, and frequently bring neglected parts of the mine into effective and profitable working. ”

“ An account is opened at the counting-house with the taker or principal man of the pair, wherein he is debited with the value of all tools delivered to him by the smith, and the expences of sharpening and repairing them during the taking, or term of the contract, also, with the candles, gunpowder, and other articles used by him and his partners, with the charges on hauling up the waste to the surface, and likewise with cash advanced, called subsist. ”

“ To the habit of investigation induced by this plan of payment may probably be attributed a great deal of the intelligence observable among the Cornish tributers, and to the desire of making the most of their talents by looking after pitches, which though unproductive in present appearance, may improve in working, is owing a great proportion of the lesser discoveries constantly made, and which contribute in no small degree to the profit of the adventurers. ”

“ It seldom happens that the price bid is so low as the agents deem equivalent, therefore it is understood that the last man is only entitled to the option of closing the contract upon the terms to be named by the captain ”

“ The act of contracting with the workmen is called a setting, and this in general takes place at the end of every two months, the auction is denominated a survey, and is held in the open air before the counting-house of the mine, which is generally provided with an elevated stage for the captains to stand on. ”

“ No custom or ancient law however prevails as to copper or lead in the stannaries, and therefore all agreements for searching for, or working these metals, are made upon such terms as are decided on by the contracting parties. The owner of the land, in the technical language of the district, is called the lord, and the parties who engage to work the mine are called adventurers. ”