A particularly full account of the potters of 1710-15, especially of those in Burslem, is preserved in a document drawn up by Josiah Wedgwood in 1765. He gives both the weekly cost-account of a typical pot factory of this period; and also a list of the potters’ names and the kind of ware they produced. The document is in his own handwriting, and it appears from a letter of Wedgwood’s to Lord Auckland in 1792 that he obtained the information given in this document by “having examined some of the oldest men in the pottery here, near thirty years ago, who knew personally the masters in the pottery, and very nearly the value of the goods they got up, fifty years before that.” ... “From these data,” he goes on to say, “I can pretty nearly ascertain the annual value of the goods made here at that time; which was something under £10,000 a year.”[36] He then proceeds to guess at the annual value of the trade in 1792, which he says may be between £200,000 and £300,000. I cannot help thinking that his estimate was purposely on the low side, for the manufacturers of this date always lived in fear of special taxation. In 1821 the export trade alone was worth £423,399 a year,[37] and in 1822 £489,732. The document runs as follows: “Men necessary to make an oven of Black and Mottled, per week, and other expences— £ s. d. 6 men, 3 at 4s. a week, and 3 at 6s. 1 10 0 4 boys at 1s. 3d. 5 0 1 cwt. 2 qrs. Lead Ore, at 8s. 12 0 Manganese 3 0 Clay, 2 cart-loads, at 2s. 4 0 Coals, 48 horse-loads, at 2d. 8 0 Carriage of do., at 1½d. 6 0 Rent of Works, at £5 per ann. 2 0 Wear and Tear of Ovens, Utensils, &c., at £10 p.a. 4 0 Straw for packing, 3 thrave at 24 sheaves to the thrave, at 4d. 1 0 The master’s profit, besides 6s. for his labor 10 0 ------- £4 5 0 ======= “N.B.—The wear and tear, master’s profits, and some other things are rated too high. £4 per oven-full is thought to be sufficient, or more than sufficient, for the black and mottled works of the largest kind, upon an average, as the above work was a large one for those times.” “POT-WORKS IN BURSLEM ABOUT THE YEAR 1710 TO 1715.”