

A PICTURE OF THE IRON TRADE. 3 1 



none to send this sumer to London, for now I can sell all I have 

 att ,£14 10s. od. p. tunn in the Country." 



But to get on to the subject of combination. In March, 1663, 

 Copley writes to him, mentioning " the great noise of the cheape 

 rates you sell iron for," and he replies that he thinks of selling no 

 more iron at London till the market mend. In December, of the 

 next year, Copley suggests a meeting, and his correspondent thinks 

 it will be best " to divide the Countrys, and wthall not to under- 

 sell such a price as shall be agreed on." An agreement was 

 already in force at this time between them and Clayton, 

 but the latter had broken it, by paying his workmen in iron. 

 In January, 1665, there is a letter to Copley on the same subject : 

 " I heare you doe not like that pposition of selling iron into 

 pticuler Countryes as is expressed in the note, and say it will 

 breed a confusion in the delivery of Iron for that wch shall be 

 sould, because it may not be soe good as the other, to wch I 

 answer if I sell any delivr me the worst Iron you have, pvided it 

 be drawne into ordinary flatt barrs, and I will doe the like to you, 

 and this will be a further meanes to restraine us." In May, he 

 writes again to Mr. Blake : — " Mr. Newton would have us raise 

 our Iron, viz., by the whole sale at 15//. p. tunn, and by the retale 

 at 1 6/z. p. tunn, if you approve of this, and write to me your con- 

 currence, herein by this bearer my sonn, I doe hereby pmise to 

 observe it, though Mr. Bullock decline it." In the same month 

 he writes to Copley, confirming the proposed agreement as to bar 

 iron ; but as concerned rod iron the former agreement was to hold 

 good. 



The position of the workmen at this period was much better 

 and much less degraded than it was at the commencement of the 

 " so-called " Nineteenth Century. Charitable feeling, of which 

 there are many evidences in this letter book, is outside the scope 

 of my article, and of course we hear more of the workmen when in 

 trouble than we do when they were quietly satisfying their em- 

 ployers. The crapper, at Staveley, steals a sheep of Mr. Frech- 

 ville, which his employer has to make good ; a charcoal carrier 

 sells part of his burden ; iron pots are found at the miller's house, 



