cost bookn.
/ˈkɒst bʊk/, /ˈkɔːst bʊk/, U.S. /ˈkɔst ˌbʊk/, /ˈkɑst ˌbʊk/ Mining. Now historical.
A ledger listing the shareholders in a mine, a summary of all costs and expenses incurred in working the mine, returns from sales, and a balance of profit or loss.Common during the Middle Ages, the cost-book system remained in use into the 20th cent. in the tin mines of Cornwall and Devon. Under the Stannaries Acts of the 19th cent., the cost book had to be prepared and laid before the shareholders at least once every sixteen weeks, and the term cost book was defined to include all subsidiary books kept in the mine. Each shareholder, having first settled his or her proportion of any outstanding debts detailed in the cost book, was free to relinquish his or her shares in the venture without further liability.
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society > occupation and work > industry > mining > [noun] > worksheets and record books
cost book1813
plod1935
1813 Royal Cornwall Gaz. 7 Aug. I shall accordingly grant an order to be served on the defendants, requiring them to produce..the cost books, and all other books relating to the Mine.
1837 Southern Lit. Messenger 3 26 Men whose feelings are divided between their pleadings and their cost books.
1920 R. McGarraugh Mine Bookkeeping iii. 22 The cost price per unit of each article of warehouse stock is given in the Cost Book.
1950 C. A. Cooke Corporation, Trust & Company viii. 113 The feature of the cost-book company was the regular presentation of the cost-book, made up to date, to the company meetings.
2014 J. Woodland Money Pits v. 111 Scripholders in cost book companies such as this were not regarded as shareholders, as they had not signed the cost book.
Compounds
cost-book company n. a partnership formed to operate a mine under the cost-book system.
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1848 Morning Post 25 Mar. 3/6 Mr. Hill..moved that the purser be requested to call a monthly meeting of the proprietors resident in Cornwall, to compare the books of the company with the accounts of the merchants (the same as in other cost book companies).
1963 R. J. Forbes Stud. Anc. Technol. VII. iii. 230 This system was the ancestor of the cost-book companies at the Cornish stanneries in the Middle Ages and after.
2014 J. Woodland Money Pits iii. 33 In larger cost book companies such as those of the ‘gold bubble’ period, the management function was undertaken by a committee.
cost-book mine n. a mine operating under the cost-book system.
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1847 Law Times 26 June 268/3 In a cost-book mine I believe he is quite correct; certainly no such fact was proved in this case.
1912 Financial Times 21 Sept. 5/3 Many of the old cost-book mines ‘went under’ just about the time that the Dolcoath changed over from cost-book to limited liability.
2013 J. Taylor Boardroom Scandal v. 118 Though the accounts showed debts due as paid, the defence held that this was customary practice among cost-book mines.
cost-book system n. a means of financing the working of a mine by using a cost book.
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1836 Cornwall Royal Gaz. 24 June The Mine is divided into 200 Shares, and conducted on the Cost Book system.
1889 E. Matheson Aid Bk. Engin. Enterprise Abroad (ed. 2) xiv. 305 Some mines are worked under..the ‘cost book’ system, by which the adventurers..meet from time to time to examine the accounts of expenditure and receipts, and then decide either to stop further outlay or to proceed.
1991 R. Brown Society & Econ. in Mod. Brit., 1700–1850 vi. 123 The tin mines of Cornwall were owned by groups of ‘adventurers’ on the ‘cost-book’ system.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1813