The warning voiced by _The Times_ with regard to the Salt Union’s inefficient monopoly was justified almost immediately by the issue of prospectuses of rival salt schemes, and although opposition of this kind was treated by the Union with affected contempt, and the public was assured that the insignificant salt lands secured by rash outsiders were “such as to break the hearts of all investors who might visit them,” the fact remained, as was noted in November, 1889, that “the most remarkable thing in connection with salt has been the continuous fall in the price of Salt Union shares.” The principle on which the valuation of the Union’s acquisitions was made did not transpire, but _The Times_ understood that “the selling price has been quite satisfactory to the vendors,” and the Chairman of the Union, in 1896, was feign to confess that “never were covenants so ingeniously framed as to cause lawsuits.” It is not overstating the case to say that the terms upon which the Salt Union purchased their properties provides one of the most amazing instances of reckless optimism in the history of comparatively modern finance, and the subsequent administration of the Company’s affairs was as unfortunate as the preliminary settlements had been disastrous. In one law case with a vendor from whom they had purchased for £600,000 a property which their own representative valued at £400,000, they had to pay a further £60,000, and they settled another action by selling for £125,000 a tract of land which they had originally acquired for £372,000. In 1895, they increased their capital to £4,200,000 by issue of further debentures to the amount of £200,000; and, in 1901, the capitalization of the Union was reduced to £2,600,000. Up to 1913, they had paid away £117,451 for directors’ fees, travelling expenses, etc., £99,236 for preliminary and Parliamentary expenses, law charges, etc., and £723,985 for administration charges, and from 1896 to 1914 they had only paid (in 1907) one dividend of ½ per cent. on the ordinary shares. INDEX Agricola (Georgius) on salt-making, 15, 18, 56 America, salt-making in, 127–135 --, vacuum system in, 135 Brine, battle of the, 121 --, composition of, 7 --, economy in production of, by Furnival, 78 --, evaporation of, 3 --, Dr. Jackson on the process, 56–60 --, old reservoirs of, 104 --, output at Northwich, 53 --, treatment of, in early days, 40 Brine-making, methods of Dr. Jackson, Rastel, Lowndes, Brownrigg, Chrysel, Furnival, Holland, 56–73 Brine-tapping, improved process described, 106, 107 Camden’s _Britannia_, derivation of suffix “wich,” 32 --, supply and treatment of brine described, 40, 42 _Chambers’s Journal_, a subsidence described, 113, 114 Cheshire, the “wiches” of, 32, 34 --, extent of deposits in, 83–96 Chrysel, persecution of, 71 Domesday Book, references to salt works in Cheshire, rules governing the trade, 34–37