Richard.
I can only speak for my area in the Pennine dales. Here many of the miners
were dependant to a greater or lesser extent on a dual economy of mining
and something else, the something else generally being subsistence farming.
One of the great desires of the miners was to get enough money together to
buy a smallholding and be totally independent.
In the early 19th cent this dual economy could be a double edged sword.
When the mines were poor and food costs high, a miner/farmer may well have
needed parish relief but if he owned his own land he was liable to pay poor
rates and could get no relief himself.
In the 18th cent the investors in mining were in general either the mineral
owner or someone of the gentry classes, (in larger concerns that is) there
were always the group of miners working here and there trying to make a
wage. In the mid 19th century most of the investors were farmers or
professional men, solicitors etc, so I don't think that there was much conflict
between mining and farming. Most of the mining was in waste ground away from
agricultural land.
Somewhere I had a reference to one of Joseph Townsend's quotes, basically
saying that if the poor could not support themselves, they should be left to
starve, I'm afraid I can't find it at the moment.
No doubt you have tried a google book search but put in Townsend and
Malthus, quite a few references come up.
Regards
Ian Spensley
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