Good Afternoon:

A fascinating exchange.

The attraction of mining  is/was that a successful mining venture could pay 
higher wages, a possibility not available to farm workers. We see the same 
forces at work today in the  less developed countries where the even small 
possibility of breaking out of a cycle of poverty is eagerly grasped by the 
workforce.

The question I have to ask, from the farthest reaches of British Columbia, 
Canada, are there any sweeping economic studies of the history of mining in 
the UK that covers impact, sources of finance, cultural dislocation and last 
but not least the development of cadres of mine workers who then went on to 
develop mining ventures in the USA, Australia, Canada, South  Africa.

A comparable study of the Scottish Herring Industry by Malcolm Gray at 
Aberdeen sets out the economic and cultural forces at work  in the rise and 
fall of this industry. Are there any similar mining history scholars at 
work?



Roy Wares

Vancouver, BC

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roy Wares, P. Eng. FEC
Vancouver, BC
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Spensley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2010 4:09 AM
Subject: Re: Social effects of Mining vs Agriculture



Going  back to Richard’s original question.
The  fact that mines were being worked in a rural area meant that at times
when the  mines were profitable; labourers preferred to earn higher wages
and either went  to the mines or demanded higher wages for agricultural 
work.
(I’m afraid that  the reference gremlins have been at my notes again, but
John Tuke c1790 gives  examples, I think in “A Journey through the North
Riding of  Yorkshire”)
Poverty in mining areas is complicated by attitudes of the time and  the
productivity of the mines. It seems almost inevitable that during the  18th 
&
19th centuries mines were worked beyond the  limits of pay-grade ore. Other
mines were also opened up close to profitable  ones on slight occurrences of
ore which were really just geological anomalies  and should have been
ignored. All this led to a relatively large population  hanging on for 
better
times; or with nowhere else to go or do.
Joseph  Townsend was a man of the establishment and the social elite who
looked on the  poor as being put on earth to work for the rich and nothing
more. William  Chaytor, ‘one of the social elite’ wanted to work a mine in
Wensleydale where a  group of miners were working, he was incensed that once
they had made a decent  wage they stopped for a week or so spent it an ale
house. Not a sensible thing  to do, but what would William have spent it on? 
A
fine carriage, clothes, port  and brandy?
It  also in Joseph Townsend’s time that John Wesley was preaching,
especially in  mining areas. It was his influence which probably had the 
greatest on
the  miners. The spread of Methodism had a considerable moderating effect
on the poor  and brought the first education of the poor, which enabled them
to budget the  families income.
Ian  Spensley


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