282 
COMMERCE. 
coals ready to supply the Severn trade ; coals are also 
brought down the Severn from Shropshire. 
The produce of salt at Droitwich is very consider¬ 
able. Dr. Nash relates, that these salt-works are upon 
record from the year 8i 6, when salt furnaces were 
named at this place, in a deed of Kenulph, King of the 
Mercians. 
The following are particulars of the different stratum 
above the salt on the premises of Richard Norris, Esq. 
1779 j from the surface, mould five feet, marl 33 feet, 
talc, (a gypsum or alabaster) 40 feet, then a river of 
brine 22 inches, then talc 75 feet, then a rock of salt 
into which the workmen bored five feet. 
The brine is inexhaustible; any one, for the yearly 
rent of 51. may have as much as he pleases. The pro¬ 
fits to the proprietors are very small, the price, or prime 
cost of salt, exclusive of duty and profit, being only 
about 5d. per bushel.— Dr. Nash. 
On boring through the talc, the brine immediately 
arises and fills the pit. 
Salt made here and sold in one year, from April 5, 
1771, to April 5, 1772, 604,579 bushels; of which, 
exported abroad, 110,120 bushels. 
Duty paid into the Salt Office, London, 6 1,457b 
which was then nearly one-third of the whole revenue 
from salt in England. 
The progress of making salt at Droitwich, is as fol¬ 
lows:—A little common water is first put into the pan, 
to keep the brine from burning to the bottom, the pan 
is then filled with brine, and a small piece of resin 
thrown in to make it granulate fine; when the brine is 
boiling, the salt first incrusts at the top, and then sub¬ 
sides to the bottom; when subsided, the persons em¬ 
ployed lade it out with an iron skimmer, and put it 
3 into 
