which would be a means to expedite the execution of Justice without delay and not only redress the present greivances of the Tinners But be also an unspeakable case to that whole County in general Their privileges likewise granted them in liew of their Coinage duties of four shillings a hundred were amongst others to be free of all Fairs and markets from any Toll tax or such like impossitions which now they are denied and deprived of And then let it be consider'd how unequal and unjust it is to continue the poor Tinners still to their burthens without their privileges And to the payment of that for which they do not enjoy the Consideration And though some men were pleas'd to represent the Tinners of Cornwal as dangerous I shall make bold to vindicate them so far as not to deserve such Treatment who have sufficiently approv'd themselves to be men of Resolute Loyalty as well as of undaunted Spirits when back'd by a Legal Authority and then only who have alwaies practis'd that passive Obedience under all Governments which others have only preach'd and talk'd of as may appear more at large by a Letter of thanks sent them and the Gentlemen of that County by King Charles the First of Blessed memory from Sudley Castle which tho' well known to most of that County yet for the Information of others who may be strangers thereunto I have here transcribed and is as follows To the Inhabitants of the County of Cornwal A Letter of Thanks from King Charles the First of Blessed memory dated Sep. the 10th 1643. from Sudley Castle CAROLUS REX WE are so highly Sensible of the Extraordinary merits of our County of Cornwal of their Zeal for the defence of our Person and the Just Rights of our Crown in a time when we could Contribute so little to our own Defence or to their Assistance In a time when not only no reward Appear'd but great and probable dangers were threatned to Obedience and Loyalty of their great and Eminent Courage and Patience in their Indefatigable Prosecution of their great work against so potent an Enemy back'd with so strong rich and Populous Citties and so plentifully furnishâ— with Men â—rms Money and Ammunition and Provisions of all kinds and of the Wonderful Success with which it hath pleased Almighty God who with the loss of some Eminent Persons who shall never be forgotten by us to reward their Loyalty and Patience by many strange Victories over their and our Enemies in despite of all humane Probabilities and all Imaginable disadvantages That as we cannot but desire to publish to all the world and perpetuate to all times the memory of their merits and of our Acceptance of the same And to that end we do hereby render our Royal thanks to that our County in the most publick and lasting manner we can devise Commanding Copies hereof to be printed and publish'd and one of them to be read in every Church and Chappel therein And to be kept for ever as a Record in the same That as long as the History of of those times and of this Nation shall Continue The memory of how much that County hath meritted from us and our Crown may be derived with it to Posterity Given at our Camp at Sudley Castle the 10th of September 1643. Who not knowing how to gratify such signal Services better granted to the Inhabitants of that County a free trade in all parts where the English have any Commerce And tho' they have been oppos'd by the East Indian and African Companies yet I perswade my self they would be content to be restrain'd from Interrupting them in their trade by Confining themselves to Export the Products of their own County only as Tin Fish and Wool Cloth And I question very much whether the Mob in any other part of the Kingdom would have endur'd half their Sufferings with such Submissive Patience And this I can boldly farther avouch for them that in the whole County of Cornwal I never met with one Labouring Tinner that was either Papist or Popishly Inclin'd But all Generally tho' Rustick and Illiterate have as great Aversions to that perswasion as any protestant Divine in England And therefore do perswade my self that Mr. Crosby his Papers were written out Book as well of them as of some others of that County Now I foresee there are some People that may raise some Objections against the Tinners freedom and Common privilege of other Subjects and they in all likelihood may be either First those Merchants whose Practises I have detected Or Secondly those Attourneys who have prey'd on them so long and have been sure to go away with the profit of all such matters and Concerns as happen to be Controverted among them Or Lastly such who reap particular Advantages by needless Offices out of the Coinage duties Therefore If any Objectors chance to appear It will be necessary to enquire what were the Motives that prompted them hereunto viz. Whether a private Interest or a publick good If the former and it be put into the Scale against a Common benefit I hope it will appear so frivolous as need not require much time to answer If the latter It must then necessarily relate either to his Majesty or the Tinners If to his Majesty It must be then touching his Prerogative or his Revenue Ob. If his Prerogative the Objection then must be That the Kings of England have Antiently had by virtue of their Prerogative a right of Preemption of all the Tin before the Tinners had freedom to dispose or the Merchant to buy the same Therefore it must be brought Quarterly to the Coinage Towns in Order to his Acceptance or Refusal An. For Answer I say That the Kings Prerogative and Right of Preemption of the Tin is not here denied or intended to be so Neither doth it follow that the Tinners must therefore keep their Goods a whole Quarter of a year and bring it to the Coinage Towns only for that purpose But first I pray Observe the very word Emption doth presuppose and Imply a Contract and there is you know a Correlation between the Contractor and Contractee for the Law of Nations requires a voluntary and mutual Consent both of the Buyer and Seller and therefore as the King cannot Impose a price on their Tin against the Tinners will so neither is he on the other hand oblig'd to bargain with every Individual Tinner every Quarter of a year for the Tinners being Incorporated by several Charters granted them by the Kings of England have power to send their Representatives by the direction of the Lord Warden to their Parliament or Convocation who may be qualified and have power to treat and bargain for all the Tin when ever his Majesty is pleas'd to signify that it is his Pleasure and Intention so to do or any other who have a mind to farm it under him whose Laws and Constitutions being then Promulg'd will be as binding on the whole
THE Tinners Greivances OR A TRUE NARRATIVE SHEWING The REASONS of The Continual Fall of the Price of TIN AND LIKEWISE The many Hardships the Tinners have a long Time Laboured under Together with their present Deplorable Condition By an Adventuring Tinner Ad Reges Potestas omnium pertinet Ad Singulos Proprietas Seneca LONDON Printed for the Author Anno Domini 1697. The PREFACE To the whole Body of TINNERS I. The Lords of the Soil and Bounders of Tin Grounds II. The Adventuring Tinners III. The Spalliards or Mine Workers Gentlemen LOng Experience hath taught us That to lie in the Ditch with only Crying God help is not the way to redress our Greivances And I doubt not but you will Joyn with me in opinion That for the more Reguler Exhibiting our Complaints Three things cheifly with all Caution ought to be premis'd I. That we wander not out of our Accustom'd Road Least we thereby give our Enemies Occasion and ground to call all our Liberties and Privileges in question which we and our Predecessors have enjoy'd for so many Ages Therefore with all submission Leave it to your serious Considerations how and whom to Petition for Releif in our present Case II. That it is no less necessary The universal Assent of the whole Body of Tinners may Concurr in this undertaking Least it be Objected That it was promoted only by the Precipitate Act of a few who understood not his Majesties and the Tinners Interests And thereby some specious pretenses may be form'd to dissent and render all our endeavours Ineffectual III. And Lastly That the Spalliards or Mineworkers of every Tin Parish do Elect any Number not Exceeding four of the most Intelligent in Tin affairs of their said parish whom they may trust and Authorize to Transact any thing Relating to this matter on their behalfs Least by the Appearance of so vast numbers they hinder the proceedings and render themselves also Obnoxious to the Government Now the most Expedient Method that I could think of to proceed in this matter Accordingly is That the Representatives so Elected and such other Gentlemen to whom I shall present these following greivances either themselves or Agents whom I hereby request to Communicate the same to such others whom they know Concern'd who may possibly miss my knowledge or Conveniences of waiting on would first meet in their Respective Coynage Towns the Second day of the next ensuing Coynage there to Consider of and Appoint a general Convention of such a Competent Number as they may think needful to assist in this Enterprise where due measures may be taken with all Caution and deliberation for Releif of the present sufferers Who may then and there be pleas'd to Add or omit any thing in the Following Narrative tho' all true in fact as they in their better Judgments may think most material to the purpose I have likewise presum'd to present you the form of a Petition to the King which with the rest I humbly refer to your Correction Hoping It may meet with your favourable Censure being I must Confess first prompted hereunto by our worthy and good Conntryman Mr. John Praed tho' I have ever been inclin'd and now taught by my own sufferings and oppressions to Sympathize with and Comiserate my afflicted Neighbours And wherein I have err'd do Confide and depend That your goodness will Construe It as really it is Error Amoris non Amor Erroris An Error of Love and not a Love of Error which will farther engage my weak endeavours to serve you to my utmost power who am Your Fellow Sufferer and Ready Servant Tho. Tresilian To the King 's most Excellent Majesty The Humble Petition of the whole Body of Tinners within the Counties of Cornwall and Devon Humbly Sheweth THAT for many Years last past your said Petitioners have labour'd under great difficulties and many Inconveniencies in Adventuring for Tin even to the wasting of our Estates and ruine of our Families who have been distinguish'd from others of your Majesties Subjects only by our Sufferings as more at large Appeareth in a Narrative hereunto Annex'd tho' we have alwaies practis'd under all Governments That Passive Obedience which others have only talk'd of Therefore humbly pray That your Majesty would be graciously pleas'd to grant us the like freedom with other of your Majesties Loyal Subjects in the disposal of our goods And that we may stand on an equal foot with all other Tradesmen which will enable us to Carry on our deserted Adventures with Alacrity To the Advancement of your Majesties Revenue and the Support of our Languishing Families And your Petitioners shall ever pray as in duty bound for your Majesties long and happy Reign over us THE TINNERS GREIVANCES OF all the Products this Island affords there 's no Commodity more Staple Lasting and Advantageous than Tin Peculiar only to the two Counties of Cornwall and Devon nor among the many Temptations that most Kings and Princes are Exposed unto This is none of the least to Receive false Representations of things on the Account of Profit and Advantage from Persons who for the most part make use of such pretences to promote some low or mean Interest of their own without Considering the whole or the Circumstances which might Compleat the truth of such Relations by means of which Suggestions most of the Kings of England who being sensible of the Revenue accrewing to them by the labour of the Tinners and being willing to Encourage their Endeavours have been alwaies so misled That the only thing prescrib'd to Advantage them and advance the said Revenue hath alwaies prov'd destructive to the one and the greatest Oppression Imaginable to the other who seem of all Men to be born Salves And what would most Evidently appear prejudicial to any other Native Subjects or Tradesmen in England must be thought none to them but being as it were not only Curs'd to harder labour than ever the Gibeonites Underwent It must be Entail'd on them too to posterity without a Competent Allowance of either Food or Rayment Now the Endeavours of this Paper shall be to Undeceive and rightly to inform all such who have look'd into this Affair through wrong and false Opticks by shewing them the true Reasons First of the Continual fall of the price of Tin Secondly the many Inconveniencies from time to time Imposed on the Tinners to their great discouragements who merrit much better And lastly the Deplorable Condition they are now Reduc'd unto First then I shall tell you negatively That the fall of the price of Tin proceeds not from the great Quantities made as some vainly Imagin or rather pretend which will Evidently appear by Comparing the Reign of King Charles the first of Blessed memory with succeeding Times for in his said Reign the Quantities of Tin were very Inconsiderable Comparatively with the succeeding days of the Common wealth and Cromwell as may be most demonstrable First if it be Consider'd That none others were Employ'd
he keeps for his own use and sends it perhaps for France where in all Probability it arrives long before the other can possibly reach London who hath no Occasion to stay for the Coinage which you see comes not only Cheaper to him than to the Londoners but the Fraight much Less too It being but cross the Channel and the Kings Duties seldom or never paid by them for the Tin being as it were Compris'd all in their own hands as Tinners Blowers Factors and Merchants have all the liberty and Freedom Imaginable to do what they please with it who Instead of Carrying it to Coinage Towns cannot miss Opportunities to Carry it in a Night somewhere by the Sea Coast where their Ship being once Clear'd of the Harbour may return the Night after and with their Boat take it on Board There being none but his own Servants Employ'd about it from first to last Nor no peice nor parcel found wanting at the Coinage there being no Attendance at the Blowing Houses nor any Officer there to take an Account of the same Now when the Londoner hath Occasion to send his Tin to France for which he hath paid the uttermost penny besides Fraight to London Commission Money to his Factor and the Kings duties which he can hardly Run He finds the Market there already supply'd Cheaper then he can possibly afford it which causes him to lie there oftentimes on Charge and demurrage to his great Amazment and dissatisfaction not knowing how it comes to pass he is thus undersold and abused The Third and last Reason which with the former are both the true effects and Natural Ofsprings of the first the Common Parent of all the Mischeifs and Inconveniencies that have so long Attended the Tinners Is the Opportunities given and Advantages taken by the Merchants in meeting every Coinage where they Contrive and Resolve what Price to give The Londoner after his bad Market writes again to his Factor in Cornwal and limits him now perhaps to less than he gave the last Coinage which still proves the same and would did they buy it for Twenty Shillings the hundred These fresh Orders are Communicated to the rest of the Profession who all meet Quarterly as I told you and lay their heads together to Combine and make the price who get as much by their said usurous Contracts as they do by their Commissions who have all gotten to themselves great Estates by these Practices to the great abuse of the Londoners The defrauding his Majesty of his Revenue and the utter Ruin of the poor Tinners by undervaluing a Commodity of such worth and Excellency all over Europe Ob. But here it may be demanded is there not an absolute necessity for a Say Master to Tare the Tin and prevent the debasing of so good a Commodity And how can that be done without bringing it to the Coinage Towns as usual An. To this it may be answer'd That it is as much the Tinners Interest as the Merchants to whom it is Ordinarily warranted by them to preserve that Mettal pure and free from being Adulterated which may be done at the Blowing Houses with far less Expence and greater Conveniency for both than at the Coinage Towns for whereas the best Say Master hath no Infallible Rule to Judge how much dross may be Contain'd in one Block by which means he often distastes and abuses either the Merchant or Tinners so here they will meet with a Cheaper and more Infallible Remedy to Reconcile them both for there may be in every Blowing House as formerly there hath been a Melting Kettle to Remelt all such Tin as the Say Master Judges not Merchantable And then it will be past all dispute to the Satisfaction of both The Adventuring Tinners are now so Impoverished as they can Employ no more men then will only preserve their Rights in such works wherein perhaps they have Expended the greatest part of their Estates to Cut Oddits or Aqueducts to unwater the same And those they do employ are only for Three or Six Months at most in Summer The poor Miners wages being fallen from thirty to fourteen or fifteen Shillings a month which is all he hath to maintain himself a Wife and five or six Children perhaps all the year The Wife nor Girls getting very little or nothing Except in weeding Season or Harvest there being no Clothing Trade or any other to Employ them in that part of the County so that they may be divided into two sorts The first as soon as Employments sail them and the works are Shut up do immediately take up the Trade of Begging The latter who are asham'd to beg lie under the Temptation of Stealing or even almost Starving for I have Ordinarily seen such save Sheep and Bullocks that have dyed in the Feilds by Accident tho poor and Lean or at least so much of them as they could make use of while fresh their Substance nor Credit now being able to purchase so much Salt as would be necessary to preserve it longer And I am perswaded a great many Families in the Neighbourhood I live do not make use of any other Flesh at their own Tables four times in the year Their ordinary food in winter being Potatoes and Barly-bread as course as Horse-bread with gruel thickn'd oftner with barley meal than oat-meal And in Summer the same sort of bread and milk only and could they have their fill of this they would seem very well pleas'd And I have farther observed in twenty or thirty years last past by reason of the cold and hunger their youth suffer having not rags enough to cover them Men are so reduc'd from well grown Persons to be now Comparatively meer Pigmies in Stature and strength which is lamentable to behold Neither can I omit discovering an other Calamity that lies hard on the Tinners which proceeds from their Stannery Courts a thing design'd and intended by most the Kings of England for their ease and Advantage as may be seen by the Imunities and priviledges granted them by their Charters which is now become none of the least of the burdens they labour under In which said Courts they Observe neither bounds nor limits to restrain the avaritious appetites of their Attorneys who are now grown to that pass as to extend a Suit by delatory practices wherein they contrive one with the other that the charge of a Tryal in that Court ordinarily amounts unto more then will obtain a decree in Chancery And if they appeal in equity the Warrants Orders and delays before a definitive Sentence can be obtain'd are generally so chargeable that it were better for them to lose their rights then contend for it For Remedy whereof it is heartily wished and humbly proposed That the Costs of all Tryals not only in the Stannaries but in all other inferiour Courts might be ascertain'd by an Act of Parliament not to exceed such a Summ as they in their most sage Judgments might think Convenient