322 Mr. Taylor c« /y&^ Economy 



samples are very accurately taken and sealed up. One of these 

 samples is delivered to an assay master for the mine, another the 

 miner takes to have it assayed if he chooses, and a third is reserved 

 for re-trial in case of dispute. After the market-price of copper 

 has been determined by the result of the sale which governs the 

 settling, the price of each parcel is made up according to the assay, 

 and from the amount of the whole the tribute is carried to the 

 credit of the taker, and the balance settled at the following pay-day. 



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 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 indiffer- 

 ently 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. 

 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 com- 

 petition, and frequently bring neglected parts of the mine into 

 effective and profitable working. 



Dressing the ores by tribute tends to produce accurate calculation 



