Dear Michael,
Re your question on the naming of Cost Book shares, there were quite a few
descriptions. 'Parts' was one, 'ounces' is one but not that common, 3/23rds,
16/56ths. (etc., etc.), and other similarly horrendous computations were also
used as well - including maybe one part divided between 4, so you can indeed
get further divisions! In many cases a merchant would take 'one whatever it
might be called' just to become an 'in' adventurer, meaning that he would be
able to supply the mine with merchandise. In many instances whether the mine
made a loss or a profit did not matter at all, since he would do very well
indeed simply by being an 'in' - he would also be in a good position to keep
an eye out for any indication that the mine would fail as well - for obvious
reasons!
I have a collection certificate of a Welsh mining Ltd.Co. that was run on the
Cost Book principal......! True, and I can prove it because it's actually
printed on the cert.!!! Rather scarce I think!
I hope this might be of use to you and answer your question.
Regards, Bernard.
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