We return to the affairs of the Cornish copper-miners, which were now in a very disheartening condition. The mines were badly and wastefully worked; and the competition of many small companies of poor adventurers kept the copper trade in a state of permanent depression. In this crisis of their affairs it was determined that a Copper Company should be formed, backed by ample capital, with the view of regulating this important branch of industry, and rescuing the mines and miners from ruin. Boulton took an active part in its formation, and induced many of his intimate friends in the north to subscribe largely for shares. An arrangement was entered into by the Company with the adventurers in the principal mines, to buy of them the whole of the ore raised, at remunerative prices, for a period of eleven years. At the first meeting, held in September, 1785, for the election of Governor, Deputy-Governor, and Directors, Boulton held in his hands the power of determining the appointments, representing, as he did by proxy, shares held by his northern friends to the amount of 86,000_l._ The meeting took place in the Town-hall at Truro, and the proceedings passed off satisfactorily; Boulton using his power with due discretion. “We met again on Friday,” he wrote to Matthews, “and chose the assayers and other subordinate officers, after which we paid our subscriptions, and dined together, all in good humour; and thus this important revolution in the copper trade was finally settled for eleven years.” Matters were not yet, however, finally settled, as many arrangements had to be made for setting the Company to work, in which Boulton took the leading part; the Governor and Directors pressing him not to leave Cornwall until they were definitely settled. It happened to suit his convenience to remain until the Wheal Fortune engine was finished--one of the most formidable engines the firm had yet erected in Cornwall. In the mean time he entered into correspondence with various consumers of copper at home and abroad, with the object of finding a vend for the metal. He succeeded in obtaining a contract through Mr. Hope, of Amsterdam, for supplying the copper required for the new Dutch coinage; and he opened out new markets for the produce in other quarters. Being a large holder of mining shares, Boulton also tried to introduce new and economical methods of working the mines; but with comparatively little result. To Wilkinson he wrote,--“Poldice is in a desponding way, and must give up unless better managed. North Downs is managed as badly by incapable, ignorant, drunken captains, who hold their posts not by merit, but by their cousinship to some of the adventurers.... I should spend a great part of next year in Cornwall, and make myself master of the minutiæ. I think I could then accomplish many necessary regulations.”[272] [272] Boulton to Wilkinson, 21st November, 1785.