CHAP. xxvi. GOLD-BEATERS. 



ounces and a quarter weekly; several were con- 

 versed with who did not use, weekly, more than 

 three or four ounces, and some who worked up 

 still less, and that chiefly by their own family, 

 with the help of one or two apprentices. It cannot 

 be very incorrect, considering that the greater 

 numbers engaged in this branch of trade are of a 

 class that scarcely earn more than the wages of a 

 good journeyman, if we estimate the average rate 

 of the whole ninety gold-beaters at three ounces 

 weekly. A corroboration of this estimate has 

 been obtained by calculating the rate of wages, 

 and comparing it with a given quantity of gold, s 

 The leaf gold, when finished, is placed between 

 paper, in leaves of three and three-eighth inches 

 square, twenty-five of which form a book. These 

 books are sold by the thousand, at various prices, 

 according to the thickness of the leaves. It was 

 found that eight pennyweights of gold could be 

 converted into a thousand books of the cheapest, 

 that is the thinnest, kind. The cost of the gold, 

 at eighty-seven shillings per ounce, amounted to 

 twenty-nine shillings; the cost of the labour on 

 it amounted to twenty-three shillings; and the 

 thousand books thus produced were sold at two 

 pounds fifteen shillings, thus leaving an apparent 

 profit of no more than three shillings to the ma- 

 nufacturer. He derives another and, perhaps, 

 his chief profit from the portions of gold that are 



