What a magnificent question!
I am not sure, however, that the mining of coal, at any rate, was
exactly forced upon land OWNERS - though I don't know that their
tenants would have been so delighted.
You might enjoy looking at John Bailey's "General View of the
Agriculture of the County of Durham..." (1810), which is about of your
period. You can view/download it from Google Books.
It gives some interesting insights into the "farming" of coal - a
concept which, incidentally, (it has been suggested to me) was
responsible for the use of a number of agricultural terms in mining,
such as "inbye" and "outbye"... and, perhaps, "coalfield"? (Any
others?!)
Bailey drew heavily on the work of agriculturalist Christopher Mason,
of Chilton in Durham, who was later a coal owner and railway investor.
As for the moral degradation attributed to coal mining, you could do
worse than look at the famous/infamous accounts of Dr. J.R. Liefchild,
and "The Physical and Moral Condition of the Children and Young
Persons Employed in Mines and Maufactures" (1843) - which is also
available via Google. (These may perhaps, though, be after the period
in which you are interested.)
Mike
----
On 9 Jun 2010, at 20:54, Richard Vandewetering wrote:
> Dear colleagues
> thank you for your help on previous queries.
> I teach at the University of Western Ontario, and I am doing
> research on the life of the Rev. Joseph Townsend (1739-1816) of
> Pewsey, Wiltshire. Joseph's father Chauncy was involved in coal,
> silver, tin, and copper mines in Wales and Cornwall. Joseph's
> attitude to mining may be found in "A Journey to Spain"(1791)":
>
> "It is certainly for the happiness of this principality [Spain],
> that the mines are not made more productive. In mining countries,
> the gains are exceedingly uncertain; a gambling spirit is
> encouraged; agriculture is neglected; and poverty prevails. If the
> mineral is raised on the adventurers account; unless they discover
> uncommon treasures, they will be inevitably ruined. If the working
> miners become sub-adventurers; they either gain too little, and are
> wretched; or they get too much, and soon contract strong habits of
> indolence, prodigality, and vice. Of this truth we have melancholy
> proof at home [Britain]. Let any one pass through the county, which
> most abounds with mines, and in mining parishes he will be struck,
> every moment, with the sight of poverty, and wretchedness."
>
> Apparently most of Chauncy's fortune was absorbed in mining
> adventures.
>
> My question: was this a normal attitude in the 17th through 19th
> centuries? I can see landowners/farmers being unhappy with mining
> occuring on their land when it was forced upon them. Was there a
> literature which opposed mining on the basis of its moral effects?
>
> Yours Richard VandeWetering
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