M 1 
The tin-mines have not beenfo important to the Cornilh 
miners fince the difcovery of copper as they were before ; 
the produce of the latter having' increafed moll rapidly, 
while the former have not made any proportional pro- 
grefs. As the fubjedt is very interefting in eftimating the 
power of this country to fupply raw materials for its nu¬ 
merous manufactures, we lhall give ftatements of the pro¬ 
duce and other particulars of the tin and copper mines of 
Cornwall and Devon from the early part of the laft cen¬ 
tury to the prefent time. The chief part of the tin in the 
following ftatement was produced from the mines of 
Cornwall alone, as, although Devon had anciently yielded 
a large proportion of tin, yet before this period the mines, 
or rather the.dream-works, of the latter county, had be¬ 
come exhaufted, and were incapable.of producing any no¬ 
table proportion of ore. 
Quantity and Value of Tin raifed in Cornwall and Devon, 
from 1700 to 1800. 
Dates. 
1 ons 
AnnualTons. 
frice 
per 
Ton. 
■innual Value. 
1700 to 1720 
32,000 
1600 
£. 
S. 
d. 
£. s. d. 
1720 to 1740 
4-2,000 
2100 
66 
0 
O 
138,600 0 0 
1740 to 1750 
25,000 
2500 
f >5 
O 
O 
162,500 00 
1750 to 1760 
26,580 
2658 
63 
7 
6 
168,450 150 
1760 to 1770 
2 7, 2 77 
2728 
66 
6 
8 
180,957 6 8 
1770 to 1780 
27,498 
2750 
60 
2 
O 
i 6 5> 2 75 0 0 
1780 to 1790 
29A83 
2958 
68 
2 
O 
201,439 8 0 
1790 to t8oo 
32,450 
3245 
73 
I 
O 
227,047 2 6 
From this Table we may obferve a regular increafe in 
the quantities raifed; but, as the price of the metal did 
not advance in proportion to the increafe of the charges 
on labour, and the enhanced value of the articles ufed in 
the mines, we cannot account for the greater produce 
from increafed demand, but only from the power derived 
by improved means of working, and thus of bringing the 
metal to market at a cheaper rate. About the year 1770 
the quantity raifed appears to have been greater than the 
demand required, and the price feerns to have been lower 
than at any former period, which was probably likewife 
affe&ed by the war, and by the influx of tin imported into 
Europe by the Dutch from their pofieflions in the Eaft 
Indies, where it is raifed as well as in England. The ad¬ 
vance in price that followed in the next period, may be at¬ 
tributed to the revival of trade, in confequence of the 
peace which followed the American war; but this again 
produced an over-quantity in the market, followed by a 
depreflion in value very injurious to the miners, which 
was feverely felt about 1789, when, by the exertions of 
Mr. G. Unwin, an export of tin to China, through the 
Eaft India Company, took place, that abforbed the fur- 
plus which the European market did not require ; and 
thus the price advanced again to a rate higher than any 
preceding one. This export to India has continued ever 
fince; and may probably increafe, notwithftanding that 
tin is found in fome conliderable quantity in Alia. 
From 1800 to the prefent time the tin-mines of Cornwall 
•have rather declined, and are probably gradually exhauft- 
,ing, this metal not being found to penetrate l’o far into 
the earth as copper, and therefore but few mines have 
been found to continue produftive at very conliderable 
depths. Any decline that may have taken place in the 
tin-mines of Cornwall has, however, been more than com- 
penfated by the rapid advances which the copper-mines 
have made in that and the neighbouring difttibt, which of 
late years have been lo great as to render them of the 
higheft confideration, and to give thefe concerns the pre¬ 
cedence over all fimilar undertakings of any country. 
Cornwall poffeffes many eminent advantages as a min¬ 
ing-country, of which its maritime fituation is among the 
moft important; but another is, that it is peopled by a 
race of men peculiarly fitted for this employment. The 
Cornilh miners unite great courage to perfonal ftrength 
and activity, while we may obferve in their character in¬ 
telligence mixed with perfevering enterprife, and pati¬ 
ence of fatigue with a confiderable independence of fpirit. 
There is no doubt but that the fyftem of management 
Vol. XV. No. 105*. 
N E. 409 
adopted in the mines, which long ufage has matured into 
a fyftem as beneficial to the mine-owners as ftimulating to 
the exertions of the workmen,, has tended much to ren¬ 
der the latter what they now are, though their infulated 
fituation has likewife probably preferved to them much of 
their original charadter as a people. 
We have before oblerved that copper began to be fought 
after in Cornwall about the beginning of the eighteenth 
century ; and, as might be expected, we have no exadt ac¬ 
counts of the fuccefs of the undertakings forits purfuit in 
their earlieft ftage. In a few years, howeveF, the quantity 
E roduced had attained to a confiderabie amount; and we 
tall be enabled to trace pretty accurately the progrefs af¬ 
terwards made. The firft document on the fubjedt is the 
following : 
Statement of the Returns of Copper Ores in Cornwall, 
from 1726 to 1775. 
Dates. 
Tons 0 
Ore. 
Average 
i’riceperTon. 
Amount. 
Annualj^uanti- 
ty of FineCopper. 
1726 to 1735 
64,800 
£. 
s. d. 
£. 
(Probably) 
7 
15 10 
473*5°° 
700 Tons. 
1736 to 1745 
75>520 
7 
8 6 
560,106 
830 
1746 to 1755 
98,790 
7 
8 0 
7 3D457 
1080 
1756 to 1765 
169,699 
7 
6 6 
1,243,054 
1800 
1766 to 1775 264,273 
6 
14 6 
1 * 778,337 
26 50 
This account is taken from Pryce’s Mineralogia Cor- 
nubienfis, excepting the laft column of the quantities 'of 
metal produced from the ores, which it was defirable to 
exhibit, in order to compare the increafe of late years, of 
which the quantity of fine copper is the only true criterion, 
the ores often differing materially in their metallic con¬ 
tent. Thus we fee, that in Cornwall the produce of cop¬ 
per increafed in fifty years from about 700 tons of fine 
metal per annum to 2650 tons. 
Copper-mines were not attended to in England much 
before the dates in the preceding Table, the difcovery 
of this metal probably having taken place in working 
the tin-mines, which had been wrought time immemo¬ 
rial. Soon after that difcovery, in 1691, a charter was 
granted tofirjofeph Herne and others, merchants of Lon¬ 
don, who were thereby incorporated as a company for the 
purpofes of refining and purifying copper-ores. This 
company ftill exifts, and is now commonly called the 
Englifli Copper Company. 
For the firft twenty or thirty years of the laft century, 
and always before, moft of the copper and brafs utenfils 
for culinary and other purpofes of this country were im¬ 
ported from Hamburgh and Holland, procured from the 
manufactories itnmeinorially eftablilhed at Nuremberg and 
various other parts of Germany; even brafs pans for the 
purpofes of the dairies of our country could not be pro¬ 
cured but of the German make. So late as 1745, 1746, 
and 1750, copper tea-kettles, faucepans, and pots of all 
lizes, were imported here in large quantities from Ham¬ 
burgh and Holland ; but, through the perfevering in- 
duftry, capital, and enterpriiing fpirit, of our miners and 
manufacturers, thefe imports became totally unneceflary, 
the articles being all made here, and far better than any 
other country could produce. 
During all that time the price of copper will be found 
to have been as high as it has been in the years 1808, 1809, 
1810, and 1811, notwithftanding the great difference in 
the value of money, and confequent advance of price on 
materials ufed in mining, and of the wages of labour em¬ 
ployed therein. 
It appears that government paid for copper ufed in their 
coinages in the year 1694 at the rate of i8d. a-pound or 
1 681 . a-ton for metal the produce of Sweden; and in 1717, 
they were fupplied with Engliih copper at the rate of 
i_5|d. a-pound, or 147I. a-ton." The reduction here fpe- 
cified in value may fairly be accounted for by the increaf- 
ing produce of the Engliih mines ; and accordingly the 
price went on to lower nearly in proportion to the°quan- 
tity which was thus brought into the market. In the 
5 R year 
