Rational choice and a lifetime in metal mining: Employment decisions by nineteenth-century Cornish miners

Abstract

This articles argues that it was primarily cash, rather than culture, that shaped employment decisions by Cornish miners in the mid-nineteenth century. Although their occupation cut their lives short, total lifetime earnings as a metal miner, at home or abroad, exceeded the probable income from readily available alternative employment, even over a longer working life. In economic terms, Cornish miners rationally sold part of their lives for both higher short-and long-term incomes.