Letter – Martin Morrison to Thomas Emerson – 4 Sep 1816

      N[ew]Castle 4 September 1816

Messrs Thos Emerson, Wm & Geo Crawhall



The time is approaching when the annual Accounts of the Mines will have to be closed; and it becomes my duty to call your serious attention to the low price at which Lead has been sold and the little prospect there appears to be of any amendment taking place soon. At £15 p[er]fo[dde]r considerable Sales have been made; but even on those terms, so small is the demand, that two Houses only are purchasers, and no more business has since been done.  At the next quarterly Bargains, which also, commence a new year, measures and regulations must be adopted in the expenditure so as to reduce the loss in working the Mines in the ensuing year to a less an amount than what is incurred in the present. – The only plan which occurs to me to enable Col Beaumont to continue the Mines & give employment to the men, is to reduce the subsistence to £1 p[er]Man p[er]Month & the highest price p[er]Bing to 30s/-; and to reduce all other Laborage and carriage in the same proportion. This step is painful, but it is dictated by imperious necessity, and is adopted with the desire of giving employment to the workmen in the different Mines rather than throw them destitute upon the country

	I am etc		MM