INDUSTRIES 



The years following have brought many changes. 

 Of the stannary courts, those of the stewards 

 have been merged in the common-law courts 

 since the Stannary Act of 1837^ and that of the 

 vice-warden reformed and given cognizance over 

 all mining cases in the two counties. Xhe old 

 customs and privileges have for the most part 

 fallen into disuse. Freedom from ordinary taxa- 

 tion vanished long ago. 2 Bounding, although 

 never formally abolished, is no longer practised. 

 The courts eventually decided that the landlord 

 of a proposed claim must be given three months 

 in which to take it himself, thus effectually 

 nullifying the bounder's ancient right. The 

 custom therefore arose of leasing the desired plot 

 under terms of toll which even now remain 

 much as in former centuries. 3 The mines are 

 still largely cost-book companies, but in the 

 wages system a change has become noticeable. 

 By 1827 the tribute system had apparently 

 assumed its modern form. The pitches at this 

 time, however, were generally let for two 

 months, and seem to have been usually appor- 

 tioned to from two to four men only. 4 In the 

 Penny Magazine for 1836 the system is described 

 in identical general terms, but it is also men- 

 tioned that the pitches, which were let at one 

 time for periods of six months, were now let from 

 month to month. 6 Laing's description in 1842,* 

 and Babbage's in 1846,' bear out, in general 

 terms, the ideas we have already set forth ; but 

 in 1875, although shafts were sunk, and levels 

 driven, at tut, with the ' takes ' usually for one 

 or two months, the ore itself was excavated, 

 often by tribute, but sometimes by tut, and the 

 significant remark is added that ' tributing of late 

 had gone much out of use.' 



These statements receive confirmation at still 

 earlier dates. The Mining Journal in i836 8 

 states that ' latterly, in some mines, the contrary 

 practice (to setting pitches on tribute) has pre- 

 vailed, and the lode is stoped at so much per 

 fathom,' although it is said such practices were 

 then rare. John Taylor in 1814 describes tut 



1 Stat. 6 & 7 Will. IV, c. 1 06. 



* See The Tinners' Grievance (1697), and a pam- 

 phlet on the tin duties (1833). The abolition of the 

 coinage duty in 1837, and its replacement by a 

 small royalty, removed all excuse for any further 

 exemption from ordinary rates. 



3 Cornish Mining, 32. To-day, the lord's dues 

 amount to about one-twentieth of the ores raised 

 plus rental and damages. The leases are oppressive, 

 not only because of the exacting terms above described, 

 but also since they prescribe so minutely the disposi- 

 tion of the black tin that it would be difficult for a 

 leaseholder to smelt his own tin. 



4 ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. 

 Statist. Sot. li, 519. 



5 Ibid. 520. 



6 Laing, National Distress, i, 66. 



7 Babbage, Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, 

 (ed. 4), 307. 



6 3 Sept. 1836. 



work as used in shafts, levels, and in stoping 

 ground, 9 and it will be recalled that Pryce states 

 that in some mines the adventurers set the tin to 

 break by the fathom. 10 At the time of the com- 

 mission on mines, the amount of work let upon 

 tribute was decreasing, 11 and the commissioners 

 themselves state in their report that, in the event 

 of a rich lode being discovered it is frequently 

 worked by tut. One witness stated that in con- 

 sequence of the ' starts ' (a piece of unexpected 

 good fortune in the yield of a lode) mine agents 

 had grown cautious, and, instead of setting the 

 workers to tribute, paid them a certain amount 

 per ton of what was fit for stamping, when 

 brought to the surface. 13 Evidence to a similar 

 effect was given before a committee of the House 

 of Commons in i887- 13 Captain Bishop, for 

 example, the manager of the East Pool Mine, 

 affirmed that there were, at present, no tributers 

 there, 14 and a working miner alleged that tut 

 work was by far the most extensive system, 16 

 while another declared that tribute was grow- 

 ing less all the time, and now was seldom 

 practised. 16 



The facts, then, thrown into prominence by 

 our review of the history of the system of 

 wages in the Cornish mines, are the encroach- 

 ment of tut work upon tribute, and the diminu- 

 tion of the intervals at which the payment 

 of wages is made. The coincidence can 

 scarcely be termed accidental. The avoidance 

 of irregularity of earnings, has hardly been pos- 

 sible without a decrease in responsibility and 

 independence, and this decrease has implied 

 greater frequency in the payment of wages. 



It is not difficult to see why matters have been 

 drifting in this direction. Under the system of 

 tribute, the miners' earnings are apt to be irregu- 

 lar. Should a lode turn out poorer than expected, 

 a tributer may work for weeks without earning a 

 penny, 17 a fact which Pryce had noted in I778. 18 

 Added to this, we have to reckon with a growth 

 of knowledge on the part of mine-captains. 

 Metallic mining is no longer haphazard, and the 

 mine-officers can now estimate the probable yield 

 of a lode so closely, that the element of specula- 

 tion in the tribute bargain, which, after all has 

 always been its chief raison d'etre, is now reduced 

 to a minimum. 



L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. 



9 ' West Barbary,' by 

 Statist. Soc. li, 522. 



10 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 192. 



" ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. Statist. 

 Soc. li, 522-523. 



" Ibid. 523. 



13 Rep. on Stannary Act Amend. Bill (1887), Q. 244., 

 313, 1301, 1338, 1477-81, 1324-26. 



11 Ibid. Q. 1910. 



15 Ibid. Q. 1980, 1981, 2222, 2223. 



16 Ibid. Q. 2372, 2373. 



" ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. Statist. 

 Soc. li, 560. 



18 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 192. 



5 6l 



