INDUSTRIES The years following have brought many changes. Of the stannary courts, those of the stewards have been merged in the common-law courts since the Stannary Act of 1837^ and that of the vice-warden reformed and given cognizance over all mining cases in the two counties. Xhe old customs and privileges have for the most part fallen into disuse. Freedom from ordinary taxa- tion vanished long ago. 2 Bounding, although never formally abolished, is no longer practised. The courts eventually decided that the landlord of a proposed claim must be given three months in which to take it himself, thus effectually nullifying the bounder's ancient right. The custom therefore arose of leasing the desired plot under terms of toll which even now remain much as in former centuries. 3 The mines are still largely cost-book companies, but in the wages system a change has become noticeable. By 1827 the tribute system had apparently assumed its modern form. The pitches at this time, however, were generally let for two months, and seem to have been usually appor- tioned to from two to four men only. 4 In the Penny Magazine for 1836 the system is described in identical general terms, but it is also men- tioned that the pitches, which were let at one time for periods of six months, were now let from month to month. 6 Laing's description in 1842,* and Babbage's in 1846,' bear out, in general terms, the ideas we have already set forth ; but in 1875, although shafts were sunk, and levels driven, at tut, with the ' takes ' usually for one or two months, the ore itself was excavated, often by tribute, but sometimes by tut, and the significant remark is added that ' tributing of late had gone much out of use.' These statements receive confirmation at still earlier dates. The Mining Journal in i836 8 states that ' latterly, in some mines, the contrary practice (to setting pitches on tribute) has pre- vailed, and the lode is stoped at so much per fathom,' although it is said such practices were then rare. John Taylor in 1814 describes tut 1 Stat. 6 & 7 Will. IV, c. 1 06.
- See The Tinners' Grievance (1697), and a pam-
phlet on the tin duties (1833). The abolition of the coinage duty in 1837, and its replacement by a small royalty, removed all excuse for any further exemption from ordinary rates. 3 Cornish Mining, 32. To-day, the lord's dues amount to about one-twentieth of the ores raised plus rental and damages. The leases are oppressive, not only because of the exacting terms above described, but also since they prescribe so minutely the disposi- tion of the black tin that it would be difficult for a leaseholder to smelt his own tin. 4 ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. Statist. Sot. li, 519. 5 Ibid. 520. 6 Laing, National Distress, i, 66. 7 Babbage, Economy of Machinery and Manufactures, (ed. 4), 307. 6 3 Sept. 1836. work as used in shafts, levels, and in stoping ground, 9 and it will be recalled that Pryce states that in some mines the adventurers set the tin to break by the fathom. 10 At the time of the com- mission on mines, the amount of work let upon tribute was decreasing, 11 and the commissioners themselves state in their report that, in the event of a rich lode being discovered it is frequently worked by tut. One witness stated that in con- sequence of the ' starts ' (a piece of unexpected good fortune in the yield of a lode) mine agents had grown cautious, and, instead of setting the workers to tribute, paid them a certain amount per ton of what was fit for stamping, when brought to the surface. 13 Evidence to a similar effect was given before a committee of the House of Commons in i887- 13 Captain Bishop, for example, the manager of the East Pool Mine, affirmed that there were, at present, no tributers there, 14 and a working miner alleged that tut work was by far the most extensive system, 16 while another declared that tribute was grow- ing less all the time, and now was seldom practised. 16 The facts, then, thrown into prominence by our review of the history of the system of wages in the Cornish mines, are the encroach- ment of tut work upon tribute, and the diminu- tion of the intervals at which the payment of wages is made. The coincidence can scarcely be termed accidental. The avoidance of irregularity of earnings, has hardly been pos- sible without a decrease in responsibility and independence, and this decrease has implied greater frequency in the payment of wages. It is not difficult to see why matters have been drifting in this direction. Under the system of tribute, the miners' earnings are apt to be irregu- lar. Should a lode turn out poorer than expected, a tributer may work for weeks without earning a penny, 17 a fact which Pryce had noted in I778. 18 Added to this, we have to reckon with a growth of knowledge on the part of mine-captains. Metallic mining is no longer haphazard, and the mine-officers can now estimate the probable yield of a lode so closely, that the element of specula- tion in the tribute bargain, which, after all has always been its chief raison d'etre, is now reduced to a minimum. L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. 9 ' West Barbary,' by Statist. Soc. li, 522. 10 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 192. " ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. Statist. Soc. li, 522-523. " Ibid. 523. 13 Rep. on Stannary Act Amend. Bill (1887), Q. 244., 313, 1301, 1338, 1477-81, 1324-26. 11 Ibid. Q. 1910. 15 Ibid. Q. 1980, 1981, 2222, 2223. 16 Ibid. Q. 2372, 2373. " ' West Barbary,' by L. L. Price, Journ. Roy. Statist. Soc. li, 560. 18 Pryce, Mineralogia Cornubiensis, 192. 5 6l
