part to be employed for making the Levels Adits Shafts Smelting-houses c. and raising several Stages or Stelches for a Number of Men to be employed together at which time the Work will be clear of all Obstructions from Water and two Men by blasting upwards with Gun-power will get more Oar than six can do now with their Working-tools and that the Residue thereof be employed in raising a Stock of Oar before-hand and also that a Year's time be allowed for putting the Work in Order and even then though a very considerable Profit will be made yet it is not pretended under some Years more to bring the Works to the highest Valuation And this being premised I observe First That in the Year 1693 before the Copper-mines were discovered Sir Carbery Price having recovered his Right from the Patentees of Royal Mines divided his Interest therein into 4008 Shares whereof each Share was valued and sold at 17 l. per Share and for the other Moiety he was afterwards offered 40000 l. by an eminent Merchant in this City to be immediately paid down which he refused for this Reason that I had then demonstrated to the said Sir Carbery and his Partners that with a sufficient Stock he would be able in a few Years with six hundred Men to bring in a clear Profit from one of the said Veins of 70500 l. per Annum as by a Paper printed in the Year 1693 may appear and herein set forth as followeth viz. Six hundred Men employed at the great Work when the Levels are up at 8 s 6 d. per Tun for Getting Washing and Making Merchantable as it is now got every two Men must get above a Tun by Week to make them Wages but at the rate of one Tun a Week the six hundred Men will raise three hundred Tuns by Week and at fifty Weeks fifteen thousand Tuns by the Year this Charge of getting is l. 06375 Carriage to the River Dovey at 5 s. per Tun 03750 12 d. per Tun by Water and for Landing it into the Store-houses at the Port of Aberdovey 00750 Fifteen thousand Tuns of Oar will make ten thousand Tuns of Lead smelting of this when our Mills are up at 15 s. per Tun 07500 Charges 18375 Ten Thousand Tuns of Lead at 9 l. per Tun 90000 Charge of getting washing and smelting 18375 Sinking Shafts and incident Charges 1125 Clear Profits 70500 Some Gentlemen have condemned me very much for giving in such an Account as believing this was a greater Product than can be raised from any Mine in the World but underfavour this will appear a great Mistake on their side not only from a plain Demonstration of the thing as aforesaid but from common Experience in other Mines both at home and abroad Vid. The original Map in Copper by P. Lee at the Atlas in Cheap-side As First in America The famous Mine of Potozi is a sufficient Instance to the contrary and therefore I have here incerted a Map thereof ☞ Place the Map of Potozi in the Page following A Description of the Mine of Potozi The SILVER-MINE of POTOZI a a The Vein b The Level c The Smelting Cupilo's d The Road. E The River of Plate F Young Potozi The Scale is four hundred Yards in an Inch. Note This Vein is drawn at one End of the Hill and the Veins of Sir Carbery Price are drawn upon the Superficies and Length of the Hill This Work employs above Twenty Thousand Miners and is wrought Night and Day above a thousand Yards deep See Acosta in his Natural History of the Indies and the History of the New World by N. N. And several Merchants that have Travelled into those Parts relate That this Mountain by reason of the numerous Smelting-houses built upon it doth look at a distance as if it were all on Fire And That these Mines have been the occasion of building of a very fine Town at the bottom of the Hill called The Town of Potozi Thus you see what great things are done at Potozi by the poor Indians they can raise Two Hundred Fifty six Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Tuns of Silver Oar in a Year and yet in England 't is thought a Fiction and a Romance and by some a meer Cheat to draw in Persons to speak of raising but Fifteen Thousand Tun of Oar in a Year I could heartily wish for my Country's sake that these Mines were as rich in Silver as that I should never doubt but in a reasonable time to equal them in raising Oar from Veins exceeding them in breadth and wideness and in many other Respects provided there were a Stock proportionable imployed in the working of them for there that Mine is wrought a thousand Yards deep here from the surface of the Ground there they carry up the Oar on their Backs in Wallets as aforesaid here with the help of a Windless by which two Men can wind up more than twenty Men can carry on their Backs And therefore I hope in every respect it will be thought no Vanity to affirm That we have as much Art and Ingenuity in England as any of the Workmen in America and I doubt not but in some Years these Mines in Cardiganshire will give occasion for erecting as large a Town as that at Potozi which may deservedly be called by the Name of Welsh Potozi and one Advantage at least these will have above Potoz◠that whereas that Mountain is Seventy Leagues from the Sea here the Proprietors and Minors for their Encouragement many have the delightful Prospect of seeing the Ships failing into the Port of Aberdovey to bring them ready Money for their Commodities But to come back into our own Country there are several Works in the North that come up to this printed Proposal considering the difference between the Veins for the Right Honourable the Earl of Darwenwater hath or lately had Mines of Lead in Auston-moor in Cumberland about Thirty Miles from the Sea and made of his Duty which is a fifth part of the Work 12000 l. a Year Another eminent Lord in the North from a small Vein of Lead three Foot thick doth or lately did clear 17000 l. a Year Another noble Lord from a small Vein not two Foot thick and thirty Miles from the Sea doth or lately did clear above 7000 l. a Year betwixt him and his Farmers and several more such Veins there are in the North. Now if these small Veins whereof some of them are thirty Fathom deep before they come to the Oar and so far from the Sea can make so great a Profit clear above all Charges What must those Mines yield whereof one Vein is so large as aforesaid and the least as big as any of them in the North especially when the Levels are made in a cheap Country and so near the Sea But the Advantage of these Works may farther appear by an Essay on the Value of the Works in the North and these compared together as
no Reason could be opposed but only the greatness of the Proposal made them seem improbable And though every new Trade and Voyage the Merchant contrives is at first a Project and so by consequence the Trade to the East-Indies Turky Affrica and Hudson's Bay c. were meer Projects in the Original and tho' the first beginning of these Mines might be said to be a Project in some Respect by reason of the uncertainty before they had found the Veins yet I cannot now allow that there is any thing in this Undertaking that so much as looks like a Project since every thing is reduced to a certainty before-hand the Veins being long since discovered fixed and setled betwixt their firm and solid Sides many hundred Tuns of Oar got out of them till the Water grew troublesome and the Partners could not agree to raise a sufficient Stock for bringing up a Level to drain the Water from them but if a Man has a thousand Acres of the richest Meadow-ground and has no stock of Cattle himself nor will buy a stock or rent the same out to others that have one all that rich Land must lie dead and unprofitable and yet without any Disparagement to the Goodness of the Land so if a Man has the richest Mines in the World even Potozi itself and yet is not willing himself to raise a competent Stock to make Levels c. and carry on the Works nor will part with them to others that are he can expect no Profit from them though ever so rich and profitable in their own Nature and this Accident does not lessen the intrinsick Value of the Mines to Men that have both Stock and Skill to managethem And to such it is not doubted but these Mines in a few Years will be worth above a Million of Money For to return if this great Vein will yield so much alone What will all the other Veins yield which are five in number Besides the two Copper Veins and taking one with another more large than any in the North but if my Lord Darwenwater received 12000 l. a Year for a fifth Part of a Work I hope I may modestly compute every one of the five Veins at 12000 l. per Annum each for the whole Interest thereof there being no Duty to be paid to the Lord of the Mannor which in the whole is 60000 l. per. Ann. more And so much for the Lead-mines only As to the Copper Mines IT appears by the Map that one is four Foot wide and the other five Foot wide betwixt their firm Sides which are very great Veins of that kind and the like scarce known in these Parts and though they are not carried on to any deepness the one being found at three Yards and the other at fifteen Yards deep and are yet mixt with Vein-stone and so not come to the best Oar which by the Course of such Veins grow much more Rich as they take more Ground upon them yet at present the one yields three Tuns of Copper out of twenty Tuns of Oar which is better than one seventh the other five Tuns from twenty which is one out of four as by frequent Trials has been experienced and this sort of Oar smelts into malleable Copper in one Furnace at the first Running insomuch that the Profit of these two Veins will be very great whether sold by the Tun or smelted into Copper which may be computed thus A Computation of the Value of the Copper Mines THese two Veins will in a short time employ at three several Shifts every eight hours several Hundred Men Note In Keswick in Cumberland was employed 4000 Men in one Copper Mine Sir John Pettus Fodine Regalis p. 32. but I will suppose but one hundred Men in each Vein and the Price of getting the Oar at 20 s. per Tun though it may be got for less when the Levels are made these two hundred Men to get their usual Wages must raise sixty Tun per Week which at fifty Weeks in the Year is three thousand Tun a Year and so the Charge of raising the Oar is l. 3000 This Three thousand Tun of Oar at one Fifth and a half being a Medium between a Seventh and a Fourth but to give a good Allowance taking one Sixth for the Common Product will yield Five hundred Tuns of Copper which at 20 l. per Tun for Smelting and Refining the Charges thereof will amount to l. 10000 Carriage of Five hundred Tuns of Copper to the Port at 6 s. per Tun 150 Sinking Shafts and other incident Charges 750 The whole Charges 13900 Five hundred Tun of Copper at 100 l. per. Tun amounts to 50000 Clear Profits 36100 Object That the most famous copper-Copper-work in England does not make above two or three Hundred Tuns of Copper in one Year Ans That in most other Works great part of the Oars there smelted are sulphury Oars and must be run through six or seven Furnaces before they can be refined into good Copper but if the Managers of those Works had Plenty of such Oar as this which runs into malleable Copper in one Furnace they would make five hundred Tun of Copper more easily than they make two hundred Tun now Object That the Charges of Smelting and Refining is too little in this Calculation Ans That for Smelting and Refining sulphury Oars this may be too little but for this too much this Oar not requiring above one fifth part of the Firing and Workmanship incident to the other for the Reasons aforesaid Object That so vast a Product from Copper-mines seems altogether improbable that such a thing was never heard of and that it is a great matter to make 10000 l. per Annum of one Copper-work Ans This is an Objection but no Reason offered but want of a Precedent which may be found in Sweedland and Hungary and in many places and when it is condered that there is such Oar to be had in Wales that yields so rich a proportion of Metal and nothing can be said why so much Oar may not be raised every Year when the Levels are made which will yield so many Tun of Copper at such a Price and when the vast Difference between these sorts of Oar and the sulphury Oars is also considered and how the Price of the latter is raised considerably of late so that with the Charges for the sulphury Oar for great Land carriage for great Quantities of Coal for so many Smelters Wages to attâ—nd such a vast number of Furnaces as is used for such Oars with the Reparations of the Furnaces c. It is well if 20 l. per Tun be got clear from that Oar and from this 72 l. per Tun will be got clear by the Owner thereof by reason the Charges is so small in all respects as aforesaid And so upon the whole Matter the same Person may better make 36100 l. per Ann. clear of these Oars presupposing them to be his own as
also a great Vent secur'd for his own Coal both at home in his own copper-Copper-work and also abroad in the West of England in exchanging Coal for Copper Oar. In all which and in many other Respects which will hereafter appear such Management and Conduct may very well be admired especially in a Gentleman that was bred up another way But I dare not express the Honour and Esteem I have for this Gentleman for fear of giving Offence and therefore I have only hinted at these things at present for my own Vindication that your Lordships and all the Partners may know the true Motives that induced me to labor for this Revolution and to bring in Sir Humphry Mackworth to be so highly concerned in these Works for the common Good of all the PARTNERS as well as my own and all the Agents employed under them It was for this end I first communicated these Thoughts to Mr. Price and Mr. Powel in the Country who knowing these things to be true and being extreamly pleased with my Proposal ordered me to proceed therein which accordingly I did and having now spent near a Year's Time about it and at last happily effected my Design to the Satisfaction of all Parties I humbly hope your Honors are or in a short time will be of Opinion when your Term is lengthened and your Constitutions setled to your own Content that I have not mispent my Time in your Service I must confess that nothing ever troubled me so much as the Misfortunes I labour'd under on the account of these Mines That I should leave my own Habitation and so many Works in the North in all which I had been fortunate even beyond expectation and come so far into a strange Country to lose my Labour and when I had got Mines under my Management of so great a Value my Hands should be tied up by unhappy Differences from either making Profit to you or my self and at last that it should be recorded in History to all Posterity That the richest Mines of that kind in these three Kingdoms and perhaps in all the Christian World lay dead and unprofitable for so many Years during my Stewardship whereas if these Mines had been carried on with a large Stock and to the best Advantage they might by this time have raised the Fortunes of all the Partners concerned and been as famous in foreign Countries as most other Mines in the World When I first viewed these Mines and undertook this Employment I freely offered for the Encouragement of all the Partners to take my Salary out of the clear Profits but I always apprehended that I was not to Suffer for any other Person 's Default but my own and on that account I am so far from repenting of my Bargain that allowing one Year to put the Works in order and assuring me of good Management for the future I shall be ready instead of 250 l. per Ann. present Salary to take 100 l. for every 10000 l. a Year clear Profits which shall accrue from these Mines to your Treasury over and above all and all manner of Charges and Expences whatsoever My LORDS I have at my leisure Hours and for want of an Opportunity of doing your Lordships and your Partners better Service considered the Profits that are usually made of other Veins both at home and abroad especially in the North of England where I am best acquainted and have compared the Charges and Profits thereof and of these Mines together and the vast Advantages these Mines have above any of them which I did at first for my own private Vse But being now advised that it would be a great Satisfaction to your Lordships and all the Partners to have a more large Account given of these Mines and that your Lordships are desirous to know my Reasons for setting the same at such a Valuation upon which your Lordships and all the Partners may be capable of being the best Judges of the Value thereof your selves I have therefore humbly presumed tho' a Person otherwise very unworthy to appear in Print to publish this following Essay on the Value of these Mines for your Lordships particular and private Satisfaction And lest it may be thought I have writ this for any particular Advantage to my self or to encourage others to any Vndertaking in which I durst not venture my own Bottom as well as theirs I humbly beg leave hereby to offer to your Lordships and all the Partners that I shall be ready at all times to accept of Shares for my Salary at the highest Rate that was ever yet given for them Provided always that you agree together to settle a good Constitution for the Management thereof and to raise a competent Stock proportionable to so great an Vndertaking to which I am also willing to lay down my Proportion and stand or fall by my former and present Valuation For tho' I am sensible the same may seem very high and almost incredible to others who do not know the Advantages of these Mines or believe that they are so large as they are described yet to my self who have spent so much Time and taken so much Pains to consider of it and take the exact Measures of them I have great reason to believe taking one thing with another that I have rather set them below than above the real Value For First The Price of the raising the Oar in the great Vein is set at fourteen Shillings and Three-pence per Tun in the last Valuation which is much higher than it will really cost when the Levels are carried home Secondly The five lesser Veins of Lead are set very much below the real Value if managed with a large Stock Thirdly The Copper Veins would employ a much greater number of Men with brisk Management And Fourthly The Profits of the Silver which may probably amount to the Value of all the rest is not computed at all but only mentioned in general Terms And as to the largness of the Veins there are several Gentlemen now in Town who have been in that Country viz. Dr. Thompson Minister of Friday-Church Mr. Phips of Clerkenwel-green Mr. Hoile in the Still-yard Mr. Duckett in the Strand near Exeter-Change and several others Who I suppose will all own I ever represented those Veins they took the trouble to view which were only the great Vein and the Bog Vein rather less than greater than they really were but at that time I had not discovered the two Copper Veins nor the Richness of the five lesser Lead Veins which now make your Honors Interest of double the Value it was in the Year 1693. And therefore since your Honors are now like to have the Advantage of my Labours and new Discoveries and since I have been the Instrument under Providence of bringing in a Gentleman to redress your Grievances and encrease your Term I can never doubt having Right done me at your Hands nor the Works being carried on to the best Advantage
And for my part your Honors shall all find that I stand upon an honest Bottom and That the common Good of all Parties concerned is all that is desired by Your HONORS Most Obedient and most Humble Servant WILLIAM WALLER A DESCRIPTION of the Silver Lead and Copper-mines late of Sir Carbery Price lying in Cardiganshire within four Miles of the Navigable River Dovey and from thence a Mile by Water to the Port of Aberdovey where Vessels of three or four hundred Tuns may ride with great Safety a THe North Vein of Lead-oar three Foot wide b The great Lead-vein eleven Foot wide c A Vein of Lead-oar six Foot wide e A Vein of Lead-oar three Foot wide f A Vein of Green Copper-oar four Foot wide and yields three Tun of Copper from twenty Tun of Oar. g The Bog-vein four Foot wide all Potter's Oar. h The Cross Vein of Lead-oar three Foot wide i The Cross Vein of Brown Copper-oar five Foot wide and yields five Tun of Copper out of twenty Tun of Oar k The first great Shaft and Western Boundary l The East Level m The Eastern Boundary t t t The places where the Cross Veins meet with the other Vâ—â—… which are called by Min 〈…〉 T of the Veins and are 〈…〉 â—…ed the richest part of them o The West Level Note All the said Veins are fix'd and settled betwixt firm and solid Sides and rise equally near to the Surface of the Ground and all 〈…〉 AN ESSAY ON THE Value of the Mines LATE OF Sir CARBERY PRICE WHAT great Advantages have been made from Mines and Minerals in all Ages is a thing so well known that it will be altogether unnecessary to enlarge upon it being generally admitted in all Countries abroad and even at home in this our own Nation where many great Families have been raised or much enriched by them besides Artificers and Tradesmen and where a vast number of poor People live thereby the very Women and Children finding Employ therein as well as the Men especially in the Mines of Lead The Ingenious Mr. Carew in his Essay on the State of England in relation to its Trade its Poor and its Taxes hath this Expression Viz. Nor is this all the Product of our Earth whose Womb being big with Treasure longs to be delivered and after many Throws brings forth Lead Tin Copper Calamy Coal Culm Iron Allom Copperas and sundry other Minerals which return us great Treasure from Foreign Markets whither they are exported And Sir Josiah Child in his Judicious Discourse of Trade tells us That our Lead and Tin which are Natives and by GOD's Blessing inseparably annex'd to this Kingdom carry on much of our Trade to Turky Italy Spain and Portugal besides great Quantities that are sold to Holland to France and to the Indies as is well known to all Merchants that trade to those Parts But yet many Gentlemen have been much discouraged of late from laying out their Money upon Mines by reason of several Disappointments that they have met withal some of which were occasioned by the Ignorance of common Workmen mistaking the Sprigs of a Vein for the main Body which yet an experienced Artist can easily distinguish at first sight Some by the Knavery of Miners who have lodged a quantity of Oar in a Shaft or Drift so artificially as might deceive an ordinary Spectator Others again have been defeated in their Expectations when they have had a good Vein either by paying too high a Duty to the Lord of the Soil clear off all Charges or else for want of a sufficient Stock to carry on their Works for when the Proprietor is not able to make a just and punctual Compliance in his Bargains and Payments and raise a Stock of Oar before-hand that Work must needs stop before it 's brought to Perfection and so like an House unfinished and without a Cover must necessarily fall together into Ruine and Confusion or at least the Proprietor must comply to such unprofitable and disadvantagious Bargains and submit to so great Expences for want of convenient Levels to carry off and drain the Water from the Works as will render his Designs fruitless and the richest Treasure of that kind unprofitable And therefore whoever will begin a Work of this nature must first consider the necessary Charges of making the Levels Adits Shafts Smelting-houses c. and whether he hath a Stock sufficient for all these things and thereby to lay a right and sure Foundation for so great an Undertaking For if he hath not all his Mony expended will be lost and in a manner thrown away but on the other hand where such large Veins of Lead and Copper-oar are actually found fixt and settled betwixt their firm and solid Sides as these are the Lord's Duty bought off and a competent Stock first raised to carry on the same with Effect and to the best Advantage there the Profit is vastly great and as certain as any Estate in the World No Man living ever finding the Bottom of such Veins or failing of great Profit till the Works are wrought so very low beneath the Levels which in this Case must be in the next Age that the Water grows too hard for them There are in the North of England many rich Mines discovered but there is none either in England or Wales that can pretend to come near the Value of the famous Mines of Sir Carbery Price I have not read or heard of such a Mine of Lead in all the World as the great Vein which is eleven Foot wide betwixt its firm Sides and seven Foot and a half already in pure Oar which still encreases downwards and 't is not doubted but at last it will come to be eleven Foot wide in Oar. And I humbly conceive I may confidently affirm That no History hath yet given us an Instance of so many rich Mines both of Lead and Copper lying so near together And really I cannot but think it is a great Pity and Loss not only to the Owner and to that County but even to the whole Nation that so great a Treasure should lye dead and unwrought meerly for want of a right Understanding thereof And therefore I have undertaken with all Submission to better Judgment to give my Opinion of the VALUE of the same In doing of which if I seem to any Person to exceed beyond the Bounds of a moderate Valuation yet since I have wrote nothing but what I firmly believe and durst venture my own small Fortune in the World upon it I humbly hope the candid Reader will not be offended with me for only offering such Reasons to his Consideration as by long Practice and Experience in the Mining-trade hath induced me to be of that Opinion in which I desire to be understood aright And therefore my Valuation doth always presuppose that the Mines are purchased free from any Duty to the Lord of the Soil and that a Stock of 20000 l. be raised whereof some