ABSTRACT
The proportion of children and youths employed in the mining industry during this period was high but considerably less than in the textile industry. Unfortunately, the available data makes it more difficult to trace the employment of children and youths in mining from the eighteenth to nineteenth century. A more comprehensive study of the employment of children in the mining industry which included coal, lead and ironstone mines was published in the 1842 parliamentary reports. By 1842, one third of the underground work force of coal mines was under the age of eighteen and one fourth of the work force of metal mines (including tin, copper, lead and zinc) was children and youths. In summary, the growth of the mining industry in Great Britain meant an increase in the demand for child labor during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. To meet the increase in demand for coal, collieries needed to excavate more.
