Strona 466 z 2651

The price of every metal, at every mine, therefore, being

regulated in some measure by its price at the most fertile mine

in the world that is actually wrought, it can, at the greater

part of mines, do very little more than pay the expense of

working, and can seldom afford a very high rent to the landlord.

Rent accordingly, seems at the greater part of mines to have but

a small share in the price of the coarse, and a still smaller in

that of the precious metals. Labour and profit make up the

greater part of both.

A sixth part of the gross produce may be reckoned the average

rent of the tin mines of Cornwall, the most fertile that are

known in the world, as we are told by the Rev. Mr Borlace,

vice-warden of the stannaries. Some, he says, afford more, and

some do not afford so much. A sixth part of the gross produce is

the rent, too, of several very fertile lead mines in Scotland.