A HISTORY OF CORNWALL To meet the difficulty that the ordinary coinages were insufficient to accommodate all the tin, existed ' post-coinages,' consisting of one or more supple- mentary coinages held by special warrant. 1 Tin stamped here paid an extra 4^. 2 on each hundred- weight, known as the ' fine of tinners ' or ' post- groats.' Although the excessive practice of smuggling tin uncoined 3 probably made serious inroads upon the coinage duties, nevertheless, until the preemp- tion was set to farm, the coinage furnished the largest single item of revenue which Cornwall afforded. Over 1,500* was in this way turned in in 1303, the amount rising and falling in wide fluctuations, according to the output. The fall in the value of money, and the almost stationary condition of the tin mining, from the thirteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, had rendered their worth comparatively small, when in 1660 began a steady rise, which brought it in 1700 to 6,380," in 171010 9,6oo, 6 and in 1750' to 10,000 per annum. 8 A glance at the regulations under which the tinners plied their trade shows not only the close resemblance of the stannary organization to that of the mediaeval guild, but also its critical points of divergence from the latter ; and ex- plains how it happened that the stannaries, while retaining their strength, secured an elasticity which made it possible for the laws to persist, with but few modifications, until well into the nineteenth century. We find no spirit of ex- clusiveness and repression of improved processes, such as that which brought the English guild'vto the ground. With the exception of a law for- bidding blowers to smelt their own tin, 9 little impediment was offered to the entrance of modern industrial methods, so that the advent of capi- talism was early, and its development gradual. 10 1 Convoc. Cornw. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 3 1 . ' In 1517, it. (Receiver's Roll, 9 Hen. VIII) ; in 1518, SJ. (Receiver's Roll, 10 Hen. VIII). 3 Pat. 7 Edw. II, m. lod; 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 28^; loEdw. II,pt.ii, m. "J d 16 Edw.lII,pt. iii, m. ^d 1 7 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 3 8 d 43 d ; 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30</; 21 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 25 d ; pt. ii, m. <)d I Hen. IV, pt. viii, m. 14 d ; Close, 7 Edw. II, m. 10 ; 8 Edw. II, m. 7 ; S. P. Dom.Eliz. ccxliii, 113; Jas. I, clxxxvii, 26 ; Treas. Papers, ii, 10; xi, 10. 1 P. R. O. Exch. K. R. Accts. bdlc. 264, No. 24. 5 Receiver's View, 1700. Ibid. 1710. 7 Ibid. 1750. 8 The Civil War brought with it the final extinction of tribulage, dublet, and the fine of tin ; but the coinage and post-coinage dues, supplanted by an excise tax under the Commonwealth, were revived at the Restora- tion, and continued in force until 1837. 9 Arthur's Ordinances (Add. MS. 6713, fols. 101 104). 10 On the other hand, the miners of the Forest of Dean formed a close corporation, which admitted no outsiders to membership, and endeavoured to pre- vent the growth of large mining enterprises. See Houghton, The Compleat Miner, pt. ii, art. 1-3, 30, 538 These rules were possibly as old as the mines themselves, but as we have no records of the parliaments of the stannaries previous to the six- teenth century, and as the presentments in the stannary court rolls are of the briefest possible description, in default of further information we must content ourselves with that furnished by the acts of the parliament of comparatively recent years, leaving it open to conjecture whether the laws there laid down are merely confirmations. Some of these regulations have been cited already. We have seen, for example, how the stannaries punished tinners for not using the proper courts, or how in various ways they laid down the manner in which a claim should be bounded. Other rules are here and there to be found. Penalties were attached to tollers, owners of blowing-houses and blowers, and others, who should make default of their service at the ' law day,' n and to tinners who should seek, through legal technicalities, to escape their stannary ob- ligations, including that of jury service at the courts, 12 and militia service at the musters. 13 Efforts also were made by the courts and par- liaments to prevent disputes between tinners arising out of the working of their respective bounds. Of such was the act forbidding ' bound- ing upon bounds.' 14 Another prohibited the dumping of rubbish on other men's works, 15 and a further order declared that rubble and sands should be deposited in old shafts and pits. 16 Re- peated ordinances forbade the sinking of shafts upon public highways. 17 The washing of the ore was subject to re- strictions, the object of which was to ensure publicity of work, and to guard the interests of all partners in a mining enterprise. The work- ing of ' private buddies or dishing-places in any secret place' was punishable by a fine. 18 Warning of the wash and division of ore must be given the landlord 19 and all the partners w in the mine, while a commentary on the rough, semi-lawless character of the population is the custom which forbade the wearing of arms, either at tin works or at washes. 21 It was there only that one might purchase ore. ' No man,' so the 36, 37 ; fourth Report of the Dean Forest Commission (1835), 6, 8-10, ' 3 > 1 4 Awrd of the Dean forest Commissioners, 17, 19, 21. 11 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 242. 11 Convoc. Cornw. 22 Jas. I, c. 15. 13 Ibid. 30 Eliz. c. 6. 14 Ibid. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 13. 15 Pearce, Laws and Customs of the Stannaries, 204. 16 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 191. 17 Convoc. Cornw. 1 6 Hen. VIII, c. 33 ; Add. MS. 6713, fol. 248. 18 Add. MS. 6713, fol. 237. 19 Ibid. fol. 236. 80 Cf. Harl. MS. 6380, fol. 48. " Convoc. Cornw. 1 2 Chas. I, c. 3 I . Cf. ' Cer- tain Peculiarities in the Old Mining Law of Mendip,' by C. Lemon. Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cornw. vi, 333.
