602 ON THE PRICE OF METALS. 



have been more lightly visited with the Plague than most 

 English counties. I know, indeed, less of the economical 

 history of this county than of any of the others, for Cornwall 

 is one of the three English counties from which I have no 

 information at all as to the price of corn and labour. But 

 I am strongly of opinion that its condition was but little dis- 

 turbed by the great social calamity of the fourteenth century, 

 and that while the rest of England was wasted by the pes- 

 tilence, the Cornish miner enjoyed a comparative immunity ; 

 since a portion at least of the increased cost denoted by the 

 difference between the average price of tin before and after 

 the Plague must be allowed to carriage and the profit of the 

 dealer. 



COPPER AND BRASS. Copper is rarely mentioned in the 

 accounts. Brass, however, is very common. The two metals 

 may be taken together, for the brass of the Middle Ages was, 

 it seems, a mixture of tin and copper, the latter being the 

 larger ingredient in the compound. Five hundred -weight of 

 copper are, however, as was stated above, purchased at Maldon 

 in the year 1303. Copper is named besides on five other 

 occasions, the use to which it was put being identical, or 

 nearly so, with that of brass. 



This use was chiefly that of domestic utensils. Every farm- 

 house of any importance had one or two brass or copper pots, 

 a jug and basin of the same material, used apparently for wash- 

 ing hands, and a few dishes, the last being generally of more 

 slender construction. So universally indeed are these articles 

 named in the inventories of effects, and in the registers and 

 indentures of farm stock, that were the weight or dimensions 

 of the implement given, the information as to the value of this 

 domestic furniture would be as complete as that found for any 

 other commodity in common use. 



Brass or copper was also employed in the mill, in order, it 

 would seem, to form sockets or stays to the iron rods which 

 passed through the millstones. This at least, I presume, must 

 be the meaning of a frequent item in the accounts, the purchase 



