TIN AND SOLDER. 599 



the price doubles, and subsequently, in the years 1371-1390, 

 increases still more, that is by at least 150 per cent, over the 

 rate of the ninety years preceding the Plague. Even, however, 

 if we suppose that the general average from 1260 to 1350 may 

 be to some extent depressed by the low prices which are found 

 at the commencement of this enquiry, we cannot set the in- 

 crease at less than 100 per cent. 



Lead was considerably cheaper than iron, though when the 

 great increase took place it sustained a greater proportionate 

 enhancement. Thus before the Plague, while the hundred 

 of iron (to take the lowest computation in the chapter pre- 

 ceding this) stood at 41. id. the cwt. of 108 Ibs., the same 

 weight of lead was worth no more than is. io\d. After the 

 Plague the price of iron by the same weight was, as we have 

 seen, 9*. 5^., while that of lead was 7*. 5^. Nor is the 

 reason of this difference obscure. In the infancy of the 

 metallurgic arts lead was much more easily reduced than iron, 

 and therefore much cheaper. Nor were there any economical 

 uses to which the metal was applied other than for roofs of 

 houses, for the manufacture of cisterns, and occasionally for 

 conducting-pipes. 



TIN AND SOLDER. In the Middle Ages Cornwall possessed 

 an absolute monopoly of tin, the Eastern produce not being yet 

 introduced into Europe, if indeed it were mined at that time. 

 The produce of the Cornish mines was liable to a tax, which 

 formed, perhaps forms still, a part of the revenue of what was 

 then the earldom of Cornwall, though the estate of the earl was 

 by no means confined to regalian rights in the county. Many 

 accounts of these stannaries exist, but they furnish no informa- 

 tion as to the price of the commodity. Sometimes the place 

 from which the export of tin was permitted was fixed in 

 Parliament. Thus by 14 Rich. II. the market for this produce 

 was fixed at Dartmouth, but the statute was repealed in the 

 following year. The most active seat of the trade appears 

 to have been Bodmin, but it is likely that most Cornish 

 towns of any consequence were occupied with the traffic, 



