When James Taggart tells Francisco he considers the Mines a rotten swindle (Section161), Francisco explains that Taggart should be pleased with the way he ran the mines. He says he put into practice those moral precepts that were accepted around the world. The world says it is evil to pursue a profit - he got no profit from the worthless mines. The world says the purpose of an enterprise is not to produce, but to give a livelihood to its employees - it produced nothing, but created jobs that would never have existed if one was only concerned with developing a real mine. The world says the owner is an exploiter and the workers do all the real work - he left the enterprise entirely in the hands of the workers and didn't burden anyone with his presence. The world says need is a more important than ability - he hired a mining specialist who needed a job very badly, but had no ability.
In short, the San Sebastian Mines were an illustration of what happens when this moral code is put into practice, and a warning of what will soon happen to the world as a whole.
The San Sebastian Mines appear in:
Section111 Section131 Section132 Section142 Section151 Section152 Section161
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