Letters – Benjamin Johnson to Finlay & Hodgson – 2 Jan 1834

Messrs Finlay Hodgson & Co London						Jan 2nd 1834



      On the receipt of your letter this morn[ing] I sent for Mr Pattinson and have now the pleasure to hand you our joint opinion of the value of Lead Ore suitable for making Common Lead delivered at the Wharf at Blaydon.

In Sep[tembe]r last I furnished you with a Statement of the value Ordinary & Slag  Ore del[ivere]d at Blaydon from Mr Pattinson and Mr W[illia]m  Crawhall selling Com[mo]n Lead at £14 per fodder. Mr Pattinson stated at £8-15-0 and Mr Crawhall at £8-11-5 but to Mr B[eaumon]t statement we thought it necessary to add four or five shillings per Ton for the extra carriage of Lead <on allen> Pig Lead – enabling the two estimates about agree. You then fixed Sep[tember] 27th : £9_4_4 to be the price at which you would sell the Ore per Ton.

	Now taking the value of one Ton of Ore selected for making common Lead at £9_4_4 when Common Lead was worth £14 per fodder it follows that when Common Lead is worth £15-10 per fodder the price of one Ton of Ore will be £10_4_1 but to this you must add the probable advance that may take place before the end of the next four months when the 160 Tons will have to be del[ivere]d.

      The Hospital regulation for the Sale of their lot Ore is for every advance of 10s/ per fodder in Lead the Ore advances 2s/6d per bing or 6s/3d per Ton. Now could you in case of a Sale make this regulation with Purchasers? We should be able to deliver forty Tons of Ore a Month at Blaydon provided the roads are not drifted up with snow.

      I must defer answering the other points in your last letter until Sat[urda]y as it was late before Mr P[attinson] came in from Blaydon. I am delighted to hear that Mr Beaumont arrived I will write to him on Sat[urday] tomorrow not having a London Post day.