ABSTRACT
In 1665 "a meeting of the several principal traders in coal" was held and came to an agreement as regards production and prices; though, the most vigorous attempts were made by legislation in the next few years to strangle any agreement between mine-owners which might result in a monopolist control over the coal trade. As late as 1800 it was shown that no other English coal district could in any way effectively compete in the London market with Newcastle. In July 1833 the colliery owners met and passed a resolution "that a general regulation of the coal trade should be entered into." English copper mining began in the last twenty-five years of the seventeenth century with the discovery of copper ore in Cornwall. The final break-up of the coal cartel meant the destruction of a monopolist organisation which, although it had suffered lapses and alterations of form, had existed close upon 250 years.
