A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



John the mercer presents five hundredweight ; l 

 Henry, earl of Devon, one hundredweight ; 2 

 John, earl of Cornwall, ninety-four thousand- 

 weight ; 3 Thomas the goldsmith, four thousand- 

 weight ; 4 while Richard the smith, Thomas the 

 pewterer, 6 John Trenagoff the clerk, 5 Michael 

 the skinner, 6 John vicar of Bodmin, 5 Ralph 

 rector of the church of St. Ladoce, Johanna the 

 widow of Ralf Barson, 7 Ralph the chapman, 8 

 John the merchant, 8 and Alfred the prior of Mt. 

 St. Michael's, 10 all figure in the lists. It may be 

 stated with confidence that most of these people 

 were simply members of mediaeval cost-book 

 companies, such as those to which the Black 

 Prince referred when, after the Plague, he for- 

 bade the tinners to withdraw from the mines 

 either the labour or the expense that had usually 

 been bestowed. 



As to the wage system, whether the workmen 

 were paid by the piece, day, or tribute system, it 

 is not for us to say. Probably several methods 

 were employed. One of the complaints against 

 Trenewyth was that he gave his men but a 

 penny a day, while it would seem from the state- 

 ment of John Thomas, a small mine owner 

 early in the fifteenth century, 11 that he paid his 

 men by the piece, or by the tribute method. 



In endeavouring to trace back the contract 

 system of tin purchases, so prevalent in the days 

 of Elizabeth, it will be necessary to bear in mind, 

 first, that the great factor making for the system, 

 namely, the prohibition of sales except at the 

 coinages, was in force as early as we have definite 

 knowledge; 12 secondly, that already in 1198 a 

 distinct class differentiation existed, including 

 diggers, smelters, ore buyers, and tin dealers. 



Our earliest authority has hitherto been Beare, 

 whose account dates back to 1586. But in 1553 

 the system was employed, as we learn by an 



1 P. R. O. Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 265, No. 25 

 (1463). 



2 Ibid. bdle. 271, No. 13 (1524). 



3 Ibid. bdle. 262, No. 26 (1333). 



4 Ibid. bdle. 265, No. 20 (1456). 



5 Ibid. No. 12 (1432). 



6 Ibid. bdle. 261, No. 6. 



7 Ibid. bdle. 262, No. 29 (1333). 



8 Ibid. bdle. 263, No. I (1334). 



9 Ibid. bdle. 262, No. 21 (1331). 



10 Ibid. bdle. 261, No. I (1305). 



11 Chancery Proc. in the Reign of Elizabeth, i, p. xiii. 

 In the accounts for the king's silver mines in Devon, 

 all sorts of payments appear side by side. The 

 miners were paid by the day, and occasionally by the 

 piece, with also special payments for special jobs. As 

 we might expect in a mine of that sort, no trace of 

 tribute appears, but tut work was not uncommon. 

 The hands not actually engaged in excavation were 

 usually paid by the day or by the piece, and many 

 of the miners seem to have turned their hands 

 to all sorts of surface work as well (P. R. O. 

 Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 260, No. 3 ; bdle. 266, 

 No. 25). 



u Before 1198 (Black Book of Exchequer, No. 10). 



inspection of the papers relating to the Broke- 

 house preemption. 13 Still earlier we have in 

 1492 a proclamation from Henry VII, appoint- 

 ing Southampton the staple for tin, and decree- 

 ing two extra coinages ' because the poor tinners 

 have not been able to keep their tin for a good 

 price, when there are only two.' 14 In 1405 com- 

 plaint was made in Parliament of the ' merchants 

 with ready money who go about Cornwall, and, 

 taking advantage of the poor tinners, buy their 

 tin cheap, and so keep down the price.' 16 In 

 1347, on occasion of the grant of the preemption 

 to Tideman of Limberg, the ' merchants of 

 England ' petitioned that the patent be revoked. 

 They had, in the past, been used to purchase 

 Cornish tin, but now no one can buy except the 

 patentee. 16 In 1315, in the tinners' petition 

 against the exactions of Antonio of Pisa, 17 they 

 mention the fact that, before his patent, they 

 sold their tin to merchants coming to Cornwall in 

 exchange for wines, cloths, and wares. In 1304 

 the merchant buyers of Cornish tin petitioned 

 the king that they might have two days in which 

 to pay their coinage duties. 18 But why should 

 they pay coinage duties rather than the tinners 

 themselves ? Evidently because, at this time, as 

 in the sixteenth century and later, the tinners 

 pledged their metal in advance to the dealers, 

 and, on getting the vouchers for their tin from 

 the coinage officers, delivered them to their mer- 

 chant creditors, who then, as later, discharged 

 the dues, and claimed the tin. 19 



In the absence of data to the contrary, the 

 evidence presented, although meagre, points to 

 no important change in stannary economy from 

 the Middle Ages down to the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries. There was still the cost- 

 book system, still the non-working shareholder, 

 and still the working adventurer, who, together 

 with the employes in the larger works, was 

 depressed by the coinage, with the forced sales 

 which it engendered. 



The preceding pages, with some exceptions, 

 have been devoted to a description of the mines 

 as they existed until within the last century. 



" S. P. Dom. Mary, iv, 5. 

 "Pat. 7 Hen. VII, pt. i. 



15 Parl. R. (Rec. Com.), v, 334^. 



16 Ibid, ii, 1 80, 188. "Ibid, i, 308. 

 "Ibid, i, 163*. 



19 There is plenty of evidence in support of the view 

 that the relations of the tinners with the dealers were 

 but typical of conditions throughout the mining 

 districts of England in the Middle Ages. A provision 

 of the Derbyshire customs confirmed in 1288 is to the 

 effect that the barmaster is not to prevent the pay- ' 

 ment of debts by any miner to any man who has 

 given him money beforehand for his ore (Add. MS. 

 6682, fol. 65, 69 ; Pike, Britain's Metal Mines, 31). 

 In the Forest of Dean, an attempt was made to keep 

 down the evil by the provision that no free miners 

 could become smiths (who were the purchasers of 

 the ore) and still retain their mining privileges 

 (Houghton, The Comfleat Miner, pt. ii, art. 33). 



560 



