INDUSTRIES 



realized from his shares in several of the mines 

 themselves, 1 while, from such of the mines as 

 were on the duchy manors, the duke drew toll 

 tin at the local rates. 2 Tribulage, a poll tax 

 levied in Blackmore at the rate of </., and in 

 Penwith and Kerrier at %d., 3 and after the Black 

 Death at 2.d.* for each labouring tinner, in the 

 best of times amounted to but a few pounds 5 

 each year. 



Many of the above were frequently farmed 

 to collectors for round sums, and this fact be- 

 comes especially prominent in the case of the 

 preemption. 6 Its origin cannot be traced back 

 further than 1195, when Richard I made a con- 

 siderable profit in tin trades. 7 It seems also to 

 have been exercised by John, 8 and Edmund of 

 Cornwall made use of it in 1297,' and possibly 

 at other times. 10 The right of preemption was 

 embodied in the charter of 1305," and during 

 the fourteenth century was exercised on half a 

 dozen different occasions, although in some cases 

 the opposition of the tinners was so great as to 

 compel its withdrawal. Edward II used it in 

 1 31 2, 12 and, later, made it over to Antonio of 

 Pisa, an Italian merchant to whom he was 

 in debt. 13 His exactions, 14 and the tinners' 

 opposition, 15 resulted in the speedy withdrawal 

 of the patent, 16 and the same result followed 

 an attempt, a few years later, to farm the 

 preemption to two of the king's servants. 17 

 An effort on the part of Edward III, in 

 I 33^> 18 met with a similar fate, but the Black 

 Prince not only exercised the prerogative for 

 his own direct benefit, 18 but leased it to a 

 German merchant. 20 



I P. R. O. Accts. Exch. K. R. bdle. 266, No. 2. 

 'Only .14 was received in this way in 1504. 



(Receiver's Roll, 1 8 Hen, VII). 



3 Exch. K. R. Bailiffs' Accts. of Edmund of 

 Cornwall, 24-25 Edw. I. 



4 Receiver's Roll, 23 Edw. III. 



5 In 1417, 13 7/. (Receiver's Roll, 5 Hen. V). 



6 This right was exercised in the Derbyshire lead 

 mines (Cal. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxli, 629 ; ccclxxvii, 

 5 ; cccx, n ; Add. MS. 6682, fol. 69). 



7 Pipe R. 7 and 9 Ric. I, Cornw. 



8 Ibid, i John, Cornw. 



9 Exch. K. R. Bailiffs' Accts. of Edmund of Corn- 

 wall, 2425 Edw. I. 



10 Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12, 29^. 



II Chart. R. 33 Edw. 1, m. 40. 



11 Close, 6 Edw. II, m. 23. 



13 Cf. Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12, 29^. 



14 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 308. 



15 Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 4. 



16 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 10 ; 8 Edw. II, pt. i, 

 m. z%d, 29 d\ 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 25 d, sched. 

 dorse ; Close, 8 Edw. II, m. 7. 



" Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24, 28 ; Close, 14 

 Edw. II, m. 23. 



18 Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20, 23^, 25. 



19 P.RO. Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 263, No. 15. 



10 Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 3. Par/. R. (Rec. 

 Com.), ii, 1 68, 180, 203. 



With a single exception 21 the tinners were let 

 alone until the seventeenth century, when, in a 

 regime of monopolies, the preemption of the tin 

 was exercised or farmed for the greater part of 

 that century. The amounts which the Stuarts 22 

 received for the farm of the preemption were 

 exceedingly generous. Two thousand pounds 

 were paid in i6oi, 23 but, as the privilege was seen 

 to be worth more, the rent was raised gradually 

 to ji 2,000 per annum in i628, 24 a sum far ex- 

 ceeding in amount that of all the other stannary 

 receipts combined. 



But the most important tax laid on the stan- 

 naries was the coinage dues, formed of a union 

 of the ancient farm and of the king's mark. 

 By 1305 these had become dissociated from the 

 process of smelting and had been fixed at 45. per 

 hundredweight, assessed and paid at the coinage 

 towns. 25 For a couple of centuries the affair took 

 place at two periods in the year, Midsummer and 

 Michaelmas, the approximate date being settled 

 by the Duke of Cornwall, 26 but the minor arrange- 

 ments by the three officers of the coinage. The 

 receiver, the controller, 27 and the steward of the 

 district in which the coinage was to be held, 

 bearing the stamping hammer 28 and official 

 weights, met at the towns the weigher, 29 the 

 assay-master 30 (whose duty it was to ascertain the 

 quality of each block of tin presented, by chipping 

 a piece from the corner), and other minor officials 

 and porters. 31 Thither also came the mine owners, 

 with their tin, while from London and the ports 

 came the would-be purchasers. The tin was 

 takn from the coinage-hall where it lay stored, 

 weighed, assayed, and stamped, piece by piece, 

 and a voucher given each owner. 32 This as a rule 

 the latter disposed of at a discount to the mer- 

 chants, 33 who on paying the dues might call for 

 the tin. 34 



" Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. iii; Lansd. MS. 76, fol. 34 ; 

 S. P. Dom. Mary, iv, 5 ; Manuscript volume in 

 Duchy of Cornwall Office, fol. 92. 



" Dewes, Parliamentary Debates, 647, S. P. Dom. 

 Eliz. cclxxiii, 74 ; cclxx, 123 ; cclxxvi, 1 8 ; cclxxxvi, 

 26 ; Jas. I, xxxiii, 57 ; Audit Accts. Duchy of 

 Cornw, 1646, Lansd. MS. 1215, fol. 226-230, Treas. 

 Papers, ii, 44; ccviii, 30; Add. MS. 6713, fols. 

 432, 442. 



33 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxxvi, 2. 



" Lansd. MS. 1215, fols. 226-230. 



85 Chart. R. 33 Edw. I, m. 40. 



16 Cf. Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 8; Convoc. Cornw. 

 16 Hen. VIII, c. 31. 



" S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlvi, 54. 



18 Ibid. Eliz. cvi, 55. 



89 Ibid. Also Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3 ; I Hen. IV, 

 pt. viii, m. 34 ; i Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 21. 



30 Carew, Survey of Cornwall, (ed.l 81 1), p. 45, note. 

 Treas. Papers, ii, 44. 



31 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 55. 



51 Lansd. MS. 18, fol. 52. The Tinners' Grie- 

 vance. 



33 Hargrave MS. 321, fol. 41. 

 M S. P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 54. 



537 



68 



