ship of
mineral wealth than that they had stumbled upon it, it was natural for
the sovereign to claim it as his. We see thus the recognition at an
early date of the inherent difference between natural wealth and that
created by labor.

But coming down to the present time, it is evident that the business of
extracting some of the rarer metals from the earth is peculiarly liable
to become a monopoly. It is one of the new laws of trade, whose force
and importance we are just finding out, that the ease of restricting
competition varies with the number of competing units which must be
combined. Our most valuable metal, iron, is so widely distributed that
any attempt to control the whole available supply could not long be
successful. But it is one of the peculiarities of modern industry that
by its specialization it furnishes constant opportunities for the
establishment of new forms of monopoly, whose power is not generally
understood. In the manufacture of Bessemer steel, which has now largely
displaced wrought iron in the arts, it is necessary to use an iron ore
of peculiar chemical composition. This ore is found most abundantly and
of best quality in the mines of the Vermilion range, lying about one
hundred miles north of Duluth, Minn., and in the mines of the Marquette
Gogebic, and Menominee regions in the north Michigan peninsula.
According to good authorities, a combination more or less effective has
been formed among the owners of all these mines; and the highest price
is charged for the ore which can be obtained without driving the
customer to more distant markets for his supply. Among the mines of this
district, competition, if not entirely stopped, is greatly checked, and
is likely soon to be entirely a thing of the past. It is an interesting
fact that among the members of the syndicate which owns the principal
mines in the Vermilion regions are some of the trustees of the Standard
Oil Trust. It is stated that some of these mines have paid 90 per cent.
per annum on their capital stock, which, it is to be noted, represents a
much greater sum than the amount invested in the plant of the mine.

It is thus apparent that the mining of the raw ore from which iron is
made, abundant and scattered though it is, is not free from monopoly.
The combinations to restrict competition among the makers of cast iron
and of steel belong properly under the head of monopolies in
manufactures. We need only refer here to the fact that th