AISTNIVEESAET ADDEESS. 31 



Tin in Cornwall has been wrought from the time of Augustus, 

 the Eoman Emperor, nor are its supplies yet exhausted. It may, 

 however, be doubtful whether the produce of Australia will not 

 hare hereafter some effect upon the English market. 



Several very curious facts relating to the influence of tin on 

 the world are mentioned by Mr. Hawkins in the third volume 

 of the Transactions of the Greological Society of Cornwall, and 

 in other works referred to by Sir H. de la Beche, in his Report 

 on Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset (1839). Amongst other 

 anecdotes respecting the use of tin, it is mentioned that the 

 London merchants in the beginning of the seventeenth century 

 advanced money on tin to the Cornish gentry who came to the 

 metropolis, and by which the tinners were losers. It is not im- 

 probable that the word "^m," sometimes used for money, may 

 have thus obtained currency. There is Httle novelty in the 

 affairs of commerce ; and Sydney merchants are now obtaining 

 profits by tru, as their predecessors in London did in the days of 

 Queen Elizabeth. The Survey Office leases will, in many cases, 

 have the same effect as the advances to the Cornish tin men had 

 two centuries and a half ago. Those will grow rich by tin who 

 profit by the labours of the working miners, — speculating on 

 probabilities ia lieu of labour. 



In the time of Diodorus Siculus the trade in Cornish tin was 

 with Graul and the Phoenician Colonies in Spain, being carried 

 overland through Prance to Marseilles. 



In the 6th and 7th centuries Western Europe had the trade, 

 church bells, and instruments of warfare requiring bronze, of 

 which tin is an ingredient. Bruges in Elanders was the emporium 

 in the 13th century. In the 14th, the Levant countries became 

 consumers. 



In the time of King John the mines were farmed from the 

 Crown by Jews, and after that people were banished in the reign 

 of Edward I the mines were neglected. Other curious records 

 of the history of Cornish tin may be found in the writings of 

 Carew and Borlase. 



