INDUSTRIES realized from his shares in several of the mines themselves, 1 while, from such of the mines as were on the duchy manors, the duke drew toll tin at the local rates. 2 Tribulage, a poll tax levied in Blackmore at the rate of </., and in Penwith and Kerrier at %d., 3 and after the Black Death at 2.d.* for each labouring tinner, in the best of times amounted to but a few pounds 5 each year. Many of the above were frequently farmed to collectors for round sums, and this fact be- comes especially prominent in the case of the preemption. 6 Its origin cannot be traced back further than 1195, when Richard I made a con- siderable profit in tin trades. 7 It seems also to have been exercised by John, 8 and Edmund of Cornwall made use of it in 1297,' and possibly at other times. 10 The right of preemption was embodied in the charter of 1305," and during the fourteenth century was exercised on half a dozen different occasions, although in some cases the opposition of the tinners was so great as to compel its withdrawal. Edward II used it in 1 31 2, 12 and, later, made it over to Antonio of Pisa, an Italian merchant to whom he was in debt. 13 His exactions, 14 and the tinners' opposition, 15 resulted in the speedy withdrawal of the patent, 16 and the same result followed an attempt, a few years later, to farm the preemption to two of the king's servants. 17 An effort on the part of Edward III, in I 33^> 18 met with a similar fate, but the Black Prince not only exercised the prerogative for his own direct benefit, 18 but leased it to a German merchant. 20 I P. R. O. Accts. Exch. K. R. bdle. 266, No. 2. 'Only .14 was received in this way in 1504. (Receiver's Roll, 1 8 Hen, VII). 3 Exch. K. R. Bailiffs' Accts. of Edmund of Cornwall, 24-25 Edw. I. 4 Receiver's Roll, 23 Edw. III. 5 In 1417, 13 7/. (Receiver's Roll, 5 Hen. V). 6 This right was exercised in the Derbyshire lead mines (Cal. S. P. Dom. Chas. I, cccxli, 629 ; ccclxxvii, 5 ; cccx, n ; Add. MS. 6682, fol. 69). 7 Pipe R. 7 and 9 Ric. I, Cornw. 8 Ibid, i John, Cornw. 9 Exch. K. R. Bailiffs' Accts. of Edmund of Corn- wall, 2425 Edw. I. 10 Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12, 29^. II Chart. R. 33 Edw. 1, m. 40. 11 Close, 6 Edw. II, m. 23. 13 Cf. Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 12, 29^. 14 Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 308. 15 Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 4. 16 Pat. 7 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 10 ; 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. z%d, 29 d 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 25 d, sched. dorse ; Close, 8 Edw. II, m. 7. " Pat. 10 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 24, 28 ; Close, 14 Edw. II, m. 23. 18 Close, 12 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20, 23^, 25. 19 P.RO. Exch. K. R. Accts. bdle. 263, No. 15. 10 Pat. 21 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 3. Par/. R. (Rec. Com.), ii, 1 68, 180, 203. With a single exception 21 the tinners were let alone until the seventeenth century, when, in a regime of monopolies, the preemption of the tin was exercised or farmed for the greater part of that century. The amounts which the Stuarts 22 received for the farm of the preemption were exceedingly generous. Two thousand pounds were paid in i6oi, 23 but, as the privilege was seen to be worth more, the rent was raised gradually to ji 2,000 per annum in i628, 24 a sum far ex- ceeding in amount that of all the other stannary receipts combined. But the most important tax laid on the stan- naries was the coinage dues, formed of a union of the ancient farm and of the king's mark. By 1305 these had become dissociated from the process of smelting and had been fixed at 45. per hundredweight, assessed and paid at the coinage towns. 25 For a couple of centuries the affair took place at two periods in the year, Midsummer and Michaelmas, the approximate date being settled by the Duke of Cornwall, 26 but the minor arrange- ments by the three officers of the coinage. The receiver, the controller, 27 and the steward of the district in which the coinage was to be held, bearing the stamping hammer 28 and official weights, met at the towns the weigher, 29 the assay-master 30 (whose duty it was to ascertain the quality of each block of tin presented, by chipping a piece from the corner), and other minor officials and porters. 31 Thither also came the mine owners, with their tin, while from London and the ports came the would-be purchasers. The tin was takn from the coinage-hall where it lay stored, weighed, assayed, and stamped, piece by piece, and a voucher given each owner. 32 This as a rule the latter disposed of at a discount to the mer- chants, 33 who on paying the dues might call for the tin. 34 " Pat. 7 Edw. VI, pt. iii; Lansd. MS. 76, fol. 34 ; S. P. Dom. Mary, iv, 5 ; Manuscript volume in Duchy of Cornwall Office, fol. 92. " Dewes, Parliamentary Debates, 647, S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxiii, 74 ; cclxx, 123 ; cclxxvi, 1 8 ; cclxxxvi, 26 ; Jas. I, xxxiii, 57 ; Audit Accts. Duchy of Cornw, 1646, Lansd. MS. 1215, fol. 226-230, Treas. Papers, ii, 44; ccviii, 30; Add. MS. 6713, fols. 432, 442. 33 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cclxxxvi, 2. " Lansd. MS. 1215, fols. 226-230. 85 Chart. R. 33 Edw. I, m. 40. 16 Cf. Pat. 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 8; Convoc. Cornw. 16 Hen. VIII, c. 31. " S. P. Dom. Eliz. xlvi, 54. 18 Ibid. Eliz. cvi, 55. 89 Ibid. Also Pat. 12 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 3 ; I Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 34 ; i Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 21. 30 Carew, Survey of Cornwall, (ed.l 81 1), p. 45, note. Treas. Papers, ii, 44. 31 S. P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 55. 51 Lansd. MS. 18, fol. 52. The Tinners' Grie- vance. 33 Hargrave MS. 321, fol. 41. M S. P. Dom. Eliz. cvi, 54. 537 68
