Machines in the Hands of Capitalists: Power and Profit in Late Eighteenth-Century Cornish Copper Mines.

This article examines the economic and social history of Boulton & Watt (B&W) steam engines in late eighteenth-century Cornish copper mines through the lens of profit, challenging the conventional view that capitalist adoption of machinery is primarily driven by cost-saving and technological innovation. It highlights how mining profits were shaped by a complex interplay of mechanical power (steam engines), imperial power (fluctuating demand linked to the British empire), and market power (struggles over copper price-setting), which influenced capitalists’ decisions to run or stop engines and triggered miners’ protests against engine stoppages. The article details the financial difficulties faced by Cornish mines amid volatile copper markets, the contentious premium system imposed by B&W, and the formation and failure of the Cornish Metal Company, a financial syndicate that exacerbated tensions among mining and financial capitalists. Ultimately, it argues that miners’ unrest was directed not at the machines themselves but at the capitalist interests controlling them, illustrating the importance of understanding profit dynamics and power relations in the history of industrial machinery and early industrialization.