302 THE STAIS-NARIES OF CORNWALL. 



He gives certain figures to show " the deplorable circum- 

 stances of the poor labouring Tinners." He assumes 8,000 

 Tinners, though he is satisfied that tlie}- much exceed that 

 number, who with their families depend upon the product of 

 their labour. All the tin coined in Cornwall in 1(59 2 was by the 

 Coinage Books of the Courts 11,174 Pieces, and the Coinage 

 Duty thereof being 4s. a hundred in Cornwall amounted in that 

 year to £5,449 17s. By which it doth appear that there must 

 have been 27,249 hundred-weight of tin made that year in 

 Cornwall only. And supposing that quantity sold at 50s. per 

 cent, (which he says is about the present price) the whole 

 product of Tin made in Cornwall in the year 1692 must come to 

 £69,222 10s., which is a sum much inferior to the £200,000 a 

 year and upwards which "some years before the Eestauration 

 when we had again the command of seas, that commodity of 

 Cornwall yielded to the Tinners calculated on the basis of £6 5s. 

 a hundred Merchants' weight, clear of all Coinage Duties "^^ 



The author then proceeds to compute the deductions from 

 this sum of £69,222 10s., about a fifth part of which has to be 

 paid to the Bounder and Lord of the soil, the charges of smith's 

 work, timber, ropes and candles, which he estimates to each man 

 in a year about 20s., the charge for dressing and stamping which 

 he puts at 2s. 6d. to make every hundred of tin, the charges of 

 refining that year's tin at 30s. the tide, computing one thousand 

 of tin to be refined in each tide, the charges of carrying and 

 the expenses of the refining or blowing house at 10s. the tide. 

 The whole sum to be deducted comes to £28,884 9s. lOd., leaving 

 clear to be divided amongst the 8,000 Tinners but £40,338 Os. 2d. 

 which comes to about £5 and lOd. and about half a farthing to 

 each Tinner. "And this is all each Tinner hath to maintain 

 himself and his family and for his whole year's hard labour not 

 only under ground but under, God knows, how many grievances. 

 But indeed they have been the better able to bear them as being 

 the most Herculean and stoutest men upon earth, and for their 

 most faithful and loyal services have the greatest j)rivileges of 

 liberty and property of any people in the Kingdom." 



i8 [The learned author here gives in a footnote some figures from Carew's 

 Survey, but the reference is wrong, and we have been quite unable to reconcile his 

 figures with any of the Survey, or with themselves. We, therefore, omit the note. — 

 Edd.] 



