430 
M I N E. 
year 1720, copper was Told for about s?ob a-ton, and de¬ 
clined towards the year 1772 to the price of iool. a-ton. 
About the year 1773, new copper-mines being difcovered 
in Derbyfhire and Wales, and frelh l'upplies of fine cop¬ 
per coming from thence to market in competition with 
the Cornilh copper, the price of it fell gradually until 1781. 
In this year the Eaft-India Company firft paid fo little as 
79]. a-ton for cake-copper. This great reduftion was 
owing to a warm conteft which took place between the 
owners of the Cornifh mines and thofe of the Paris Moun¬ 
tain mine in Anglefea, which had become amazingly pro- 
duftive, and fo as to alarm the fears of the former. Ar¬ 
rangements were afterwards made between the parties 
principally concerned in the mines of thefe tw’o diftri&s, 
by which the price was fomewhat advanced, but did not 
exceed at any time 841. a-ton, and continued at nearly the 
fame rate until the year 1791. 
By this time England, inftead of depending upon fo¬ 
reign mines for a fupply of copper, had become one of 
the principal fources from which the world at large was 
furnifhed with this ufeful metal. Accordingly, in the 
year 1791 we find that the exports of different articles in 
which copper either formed the whole or the principal 
ingredient, amounted to a very confiderable branch of 
trade, and that thefe articles went in large quantities to 
thofe very countries upon which England had formerly 
depended for a fupply. Among thefe may be noticed 
Holland, Germany, and even Sweden itfelf. The total 
exports were, in 1791, 
Tons. C. qrs. lbs. £. s. d. 
Wrought copper 3082 3 3 11 value358,844 9 1 
Brafs and plated goods 2324 2 o n 209,769 8 9 
5406 5 3 22 568,613 17 10 
Comparing this with the produce of copper in Cornwall 
in the year 1775, as above quoted from Dr. Pryce, which 
was only 2650 tons, and allowing for what might be 
brought to market from Anglefea, we may in fome mea- 
fure judge of the increafe in the quantity of metal from 
the Cornifh mines in this period of fixteen years, even un¬ 
der the difcouraging circumltance of great competition and 
reduced prices. Befides this vafl export, a new fource of 
confumption forcopperhad in the mean timearifen at home 
in the ufe of it very extenfively in fheathingand faftening 
fhips; and this alone would require confiderable quantities. 
At length, many of the principal manufacturers of 
Birmingham, who were large confumers of copper, had 
©bferved the difference between the price of the metal in 
the ore paid to the miner, and the price at which they 
bought it when fmelted. They law no other reafon for 
the intervention of a third party between the miner and 
confumer, but the capital neceffary for the ereftion of 
frnelting works; and, this being eafily railed by fhares, a 
company was formed under the name of the Birmingham 
Mining and Copper Company ; their objeft being to en¬ 
courage the production of copper by adventuring in the 
mines, as well as to procure it for their manufacture by 
purchaiing and frnelting the ores. Other fmelting-com- 
panies were afterwards formed upon fimilar principles ; 
and, the demand for copper advancing rapidly, while the 
quantity produced in Anglefea and other parts of England 
leffened, the mines of Cornwall flouriflied in proportion. 
The advance on copper began to be felt about 1792, 
when it had attained the price of iool. per ton ; and in a 
very few years after (1799), it had reached 124I. being 
ftill, however, much lower than it was in the beginning 
of the 18th century. 
We may recoiled that the quantity of copper raifed in 
Cornwall, in the year 1775, was about 2650 tons a-year: 
in 1789 it had increafed to about 3000 tons ; which in¬ 
creafe was progreflive, as in the year 1797, according to 
the report laid before the houfe of commons, the quan¬ 
tity amounted to 5093 tons; and in the following year 
(1798) was 5427 tons. So that we fee, in the period 
of about feventy years from 1726, the annual quantity 
produced by this dillrid had rifen from 750 to 5427 tons; 
and that the aggregate amount of an article, valuable as 
a raw material, affording, after it pafles from the hands of 
the miner, the means of fubfiftence and profit to thoufands, 
had rifen from the linn of 47,3 50I. to about 6oo,oool. a-year. 
About this period a part of the county of Devon began 
to attrad notice as a mining-diftrid, although it might 
rather feem to belong to Cornwall, if a divifion had been 
made between the counties by a line that an obferver of 
the geology would have chalked out, rather than by the 
arbitrary limit of a river. The mines of Devon may, 
therefore, fairly be ranked as a branch of the great mine¬ 
ral country adjoining, as their features are nearly alike, 
the produds very fimilar, and the fyftem of working de¬ 
rived from Cornwall. A fpace of no confiderable extent 
indeed is to be found lying between the weftern and molt 
confiderable mines in Cornwall and thofe on its eaftem 
limits, which intervening trad is comparatively unpro- 
dudive in mineral treafures. 
It is probable that, before the year 1800, the mines of 
Devon, which are moltly fituate within a few miles of the 
town of Taviftock, did not yield more in any one year 
than about 100 tons of fine copper; and even this was a 
very recent dilcovery. We lhall now fee that they went 
on, together with thofe of Cornwall, augmenting in im¬ 
portance. From 1798 to 1804, the produce of the Cornifh 
mines appears to have continued pretty fteadily at about 
5500 tons of fine copper a-year; while the Devon mines 
in the fame period increafed their returns very rapidly, 
which had reached, about this time, to about 300 tons of 
fine copper a-year. 
The price of the metal we mentioned to have been, in 
1799, about 124I. a-ton; and until 1804 a gradual increafe 
was experienced, although the fupply was fomewhat larger. 
In the following year, however, owing to the flourilhing 
Hate of the export-trade, the value of copper role very ra¬ 
pidly, and reached the unprecedented price of 180I. a-ton 
to the miner. From that time to the prefent, the value 
of copper has experienced violent and rapid fiuduations, 
being, at one time, at half the price of the year 1805 ; and, 
as this proved a caufe of great embarraffment and lofs to 
the adventurers in the mines, fo it tended to reduce again 
the quantity of copper railed. The year or two following 
1805 were, as might be expedled, even more productive 
than that in which the price attained its higheft pitch, for 
the exertions it caufed operated long after the price began 
to decline. We lhall here fubjoin a llatement of the 
Quantity of Copper Ores and Fine Copper produced by 
the Mines of Cornwall and Devon during the Years 1808 
to 1811, and the value calculated according to the ave¬ 
rage ftandard, or miner’s price of the metal. 
Copper 
Ores. 
Fine Copper. 
Tons. 
cwt. 
qrs. 
Tons. 
cwt. 
qiS. 
lbs. 
1808 
Cornwall - 
73,434 
2 
1 
7118 
5 
1 
17 
Devon - - 
3725 
O 
0 
369 
IO 
O 
0 
1809 
Cornwall - 
72,038 
12 
2 
6972 
1 7 
O 
24 
Devon - - 
3210 
O 
0 
365 
I 
3 
0 
1810 
Cornwall - 
76,525 
14 
3 
6651 
18 
2 
5 
Devon - - 
3713 
O 
0 
354 
15 
O 
0 
1811 
Cornwall - 
70,039 
O 
1 
5948 
7 
O 
22 
Devon - - 
3540 
O 
0 
323 
13 
O 
0 
Average Standard 
per Ton. 
£. 
^ 107 
122 
141 
125 
Annual Amount, alter 
deducting Charges of 
Smtliing. 
£. 
781,348 
875r784 
969,376 
767,379 
16 
2 
19 
4 
Upon 
