S26 Mr. Taylor on the Economy 



From what was said of the arrangements between the parties who 

 undertake a mine by a joint adventure, it may be concluded that a 

 share in a new concern costs no more to the original holders than 

 the proportion of the expences actually incurred. As the mine pro- 

 ceeds, every adventurer may value his share according to his own 

 opinion of the prospect of success, and therefore considerable diver- 

 sity in this respect may arise. In some concerns the value of shares 

 may rapidly improve by the discovery of ore or favourable symp- 

 toms, 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 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 some- 

 times 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 rate of gain for any given time forms no true criterion by 

 which to j udge of the value of mines, though it is the one by which 

 most who purchase or sell without sufficient experience are usually 

 guided. 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. 



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. 



