CHAP. xiv. IN ENGLAND. 363 



to each other or any way of estimating their 

 whole amount, except by the gross quantity; 

 which is shown by receipts of the exchequer 

 for the bullion delivered to the mints. 



If a judgment can be formed from the few 

 specific notices of the sums actually received 

 into the mint from the mines royal, the far 

 greater part of the small sums of money which 

 the mints obtained must have been acquired by 

 foreign trade ; for, according to the accounts of 

 William de Wimondham, warden of the mint, 

 it appears that in the year 1294 the mines of 

 Martins to we, in Devonshire, brought to the 

 mint only 370 pounds of silver, or in our pre- 

 sent money, 1100, and in the next year 521 

 pounds, or 1563; that in the year 1296, 348 

 miners of the wapentake of the Peak in Derby- 

 shire were sent into Devonshire to assist in 

 working the mines, and the produce was in- 

 creased to 704 pounds, or 2112. In the year 

 1299, it appears that William de Aulton, clerk, 

 keeper of the king's mines in Devonshire, finally 

 delivered up his accounts to the exchequer, 

 when those mines seem to have ceased *. As 

 the sums here noticed as the produce of the 

 Devonshire mines are so small, we may con- 



1 According to Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 316, the accounts of 

 Wimondham were in his time remaining in the exchequer. 



