Precious metals tell tale of real core value

For many thousands of years humankind has delved deep into the earth in search of tin, coal, copper, and precious stones. And the treasures uncovered have played a significant part in humanity’s evolution. The Bronze Age, for instance, produced some incredibly beautiful artefacts and the first durable weapons, while coal fuelled the accelerated expansionism of the Industrial Revolution.

But for those who laboured underground, the price paid was often devastatingly high. There was great wealth for a few, and back-breaking work — often in deplorable conditions — for the many. Cornwall has a long history of mining which stretches back into prehistoric times. During mining’s heyday a philanthropic doctor recorded that Cornish miners routinely descended 2,000 feet of ladders to begin work and that this took them an hour going down, but after gruelling 12 hour shifts, at least two hours to ascend. He pointed out that when the miners finally emerged. they looked thin and their arms seemed to be of an unnatural length.

There were cave-ins, flooding, explosions and diseases that ravaged mining populations to contend with too. Miners died early of silicosis and cholera. In St Cleer, a Cornish mining village, this same doctor recorded that the average life expectancy of a miner was just 28. And there was the insidious practice of forcing miners to buy their food and other essentials from shops run by those who controlled the mines, frequently at vastly inflated prices, the costs deducted from their meagre wages.