A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



To meet the difficulty that the ordinary coinages 

 were insufficient to accommodate all the tin, existed 

 ' post-coinages,' consisting of one or more supple- 

 mentary coinages held by special warrant. 1 Tin 

 stamped here paid an extra 4^. 2 on each hundred- 

 weight, known as the ' fine of tinners ' or ' post- 

 groats.' 



Although the excessive practice of smuggling 

 tin uncoined 3 probably made serious inroads upon 

 the coinage duties, nevertheless, until the preemp- 

 tion was set to farm, the coinage furnished the 

 largest single item of revenue which Cornwall 

 afforded. Over 1,500* was in this way turned 

 in in 1303, the amount rising and falling in wide 

 fluctuations, according to the output. The fall 

 in the value of money, and the almost stationary 

 condition of the tin mining, from the thirteenth 

 to the middle of the seventeenth century, had 

 rendered their worth comparatively small, when 

 in 1660 began a steady rise, which brought it in 

 1700 to 6,380," in 171010 9,6oo, 6 and in 

 1750' to 10,000 per annum. 8 



A glance at the regulations under which the 

 tinners plied their trade shows not only the close 

 resemblance of the stannary organization to 

 that of the mediaeval guild, but also its critical 

 points of divergence from the latter ; and ex- 

 plains how it happened that the stannaries, while 

 retaining their strength, secured an elasticity 

 which made it possible for the laws to persist, 

 with but few modifications, until well into the 

 nineteenth century. We find no spirit of ex- 

 clusiveness and repression of improved processes, 

 such as that which brought the English guild'vto 

 the ground. With the exception of a law for- 

 bidding blowers to smelt their own tin, 9 little 

 impediment was offered to the entrance of modern 

 industrial methods, so that the advent of capi- 

 talism was early, and its development gradual. 10 



1 Convoc. Cornw. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 3 1 . 



' In 1517, it. (Receiver's Roll, 9 Hen. VIII) ; in 

 1518, SJ. (Receiver's Roll, 10 Hen. VIII). 



3 Pat. 7 Edw. II, m. lod; 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 28^; 

 loEdw. II,pt.ii, m. \"J d \ 16 Edw.lII,pt. iii, m. \^d\ 

 1 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3 8 d 43 d ; 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, 

 m. 30</; 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25 d ; pt. ii, m. <)d\ 

 I Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 14 d ; Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 10 ; 

 8 Edw. II, m. 7 ; S. P. Dom.Eliz. ccxliii, 113; Jas. I, 

 clxxxvii, 26 ; Treas. Papers, ii, 10; xi, 10. 



1 P. R. O. Exch. K. R. Accts. bdlc. 264, No. 24. 



5 Receiver's View, 1700. Ibid. 1710. 



7 Ibid. 1750. 



8 The Civil War brought with it the final extinction 

 of tribulage, dublet, and the fine of tin ; but the coinage 

 and post-coinage dues, supplanted by an excise tax 

 under the Commonwealth, were revived at the Restora- 

 tion, and continued in force until 1837. 



9 Arthur's Ordinances (Add. MS. 6713, fols. 101 

 104). 



10 On the other hand, the miners of the Forest of 

 Dean formed a close corporation, which admitted 

 no outsiders to membership, and endeavoured to pre- 

 vent the growth of large mining enterprises. See 

 Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii, art. 1-3, 30, 



538 



These rules were possibly as old as the mines 

 themselves, but as we have no records of the 

 parliaments of the stannaries previous to the six- 

 teenth century, and as the presentments in the 

 stannary court rolls are of the briefest possible 

 description, in default of further information we 

 must content ourselves with that furnished by 

 the acts of the parliament of comparatively recent 

 years, leaving it open to conjecture whether the 

 laws there laid down are merely confirmations. 



Some of these regulations have been cited 

 already. We have seen, for example, how the 

 stannaries punished tinners for not using the 

 proper courts, or how in various ways they laid 

 down the manner in which a claim should be 

 bounded. Other rules are here and there to be 

 found. Penalties were attached to tollers, owners 

 of blowing-houses and blowers, and others, who 

 should make default of their service at the ' law 

 day,' n and to tinners who should seek, through 

 legal technicalities, to escape their stannary ob- 

 ligations, including that of jury service at the 

 courts, 12 and militia service at the musters. 13 

 Efforts also were made by the courts and par- 

 liaments to prevent disputes between tinners 

 arising out of the working of their respective 

 bounds. Of such was the act forbidding ' bound- 

 ing upon bounds.' 14 Another prohibited the 

 dumping of rubbish on other men's works, 15 and 

 a further order declared that rubble and sands 

 should be deposited in old shafts and pits. 16 Re- 

 peated ordinances forbade the sinking of shafts 

 upon public highways. 17 



The washing of the ore was subject to re- 

 strictions, the object of which was to ensure 

 publicity of work, and to guard the interests of 

 all partners in a mining enterprise. The work- 

 ing of ' private buddies or dishing-places in 

 any secret place' was punishable by a fine. 18 

 Warning of the wash and division of ore must 

 be given the landlord 19 and all the partners w 

 in the mine, while a commentary on the rough, 

 semi-lawless character of the population is the 

 custom which forbade the wearing of arms, either 

 at tin works or at washes. 21 It was there only 

 that one might purchase ore. ' No man,' so the 



36, 37 ; fourth Report of the Dean Forest Commission 

 (1835), 6, 8-10, ' 3 > 1 4 Awrd of the Dean forest 

 Commissioners, 17, 19, 21. 



11 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 242. 



11 Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 15. 



13 Ibid. 30 Eliz. c. 6. 



14 Ibid. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 13. 



15 Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, 204. 



16 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 191. 



17 Convoc. Cornw. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 33 ; Add. MS. 

 6713, fol. 248. 



18 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 237. 



19 Ibid. fol. 236. 



80 Cf. Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 48. 



" Convoc. Cornw. 1 2 Chas. I, c. 3 I . Cf. ' Cer- 

 tain Peculiarities in the Old Mining Law of Mendip,' 

 by C. Lemon. Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cornw. vi, 333. 



