By this method, which has subsisted since its first establishment to this time, fixteen thousand pounds worth of Ore are monthly difpofed of in entire dependence upon the honour of the purchafer, and which I believe is not to be parallelled in any part of Great-Britain. Sed humanitas et gratior et tutior. Permit me, for argument's fake, to fuppofe these gentlemen acting on the most honourable principle; yet ftill there is an unavoidable inconvenience, which may be of the most destructive confequence to the feller. What I mean is this: whenever a purchaser does not want a particular parcel of Ores, or perhaps does not mean to purchase at all, it is ufual for the agent of that company to affix a price to his ticket much below his computed value of those Ores. On the fuppofition of non-communication between the buyers (which is the only foot on which the favourers of the prefent fyftem reft their cause) it must frequently happen, that all companies must be in the fame predicament with refpect to fome parcels of Ores; the confequence is, thofe Ores go off at a low value, and become the property of perfons who did not mean to buy them. This is putting the cafe in the faireft light; and, to conceive the mischief which follows, we are to obferve, that thofe parcels amount to very capital fums of money, and that the lofs fustained by the proprietors is proportionably large.

I have mentioned, above, the emulation natural to rival companies; but it is to be feared that principle has long ceased to operate and as there is Copper Ore raised in the county fufficient for them all, they do not wish to push one another. On the contrary, the utmoft harmony feems to fubfift between them; and the talk of establishing a new company is fure to be followed by an affociation of the old ones, in order to defeat it.

I know it has been urged, that large quantities of Copper Ores lie at the feveral furnaces unsmelted, that much Copper remains unfold, and these to the amount of a confiderable fum. Admitting this argument, let us for a moment confider the benefit of these pretenfions to the purchaser. He thereby pretends, that he is buying Copper which muft remain on his hands; and by way of allowing himself intereft for his money thus lying dead, he has the modesty to fink the raw commodity from twelve cent. which is a very handsome profit upon a merchandize unperishable, to thirty, and more frequently to forty, cent. It is a great pity that the amazing monthly

expence of deep Mines, joined to the narrow circumftances of many of those concerned in them, should make it necessary for thofe Mines to fell their Ores immediately for the price they can get; as the withholding those Ores, at a profit of twenty, or even fuppofing ten, cent. would make a great difference in their favour on the balance of their accompts. But I forbear to dwell longer on this difagreeable fubject, as I am convinced that most of the people concerned in Mining have long beheld with indignation the treatment they meet with, and only want a leader to ftand forth in their caufe. (Anonym. Addrefs.)

At

I proceed to obferve, in justice to the buyers of Copper Ore, that no payment for any commodity can be more punctual than that which is made by them. I cannot recollect one inftance of tardinefs in all their tranfactions refpecting their payments; for at the month's end, after the Ores are weighed off, cash or bills of exchange, almoft equal in credit to bank notes, are ready for the feller's ufe. This cuftom makes Copper Ore a ready money article, which is of the greatest confequence to the neceffities of the Miners, and in truth cannot be difpenfed with, unless the system of Mining be quite changed. However, it must be confeffed that the purchafer receives fome gratification to counterbalance his politenefs: for every ton of Ore (prefuming on a fuppofition of wafte) muft weigh twenty-one hundred weight to the ton; moreover, Ore that is wet by rain is allowed for by a further over-weight according to reafon and confcience. Pol-dyfe Mine the managers will not allow more than four pounds upon every three hundred weight be it wet or dry. The famplers demur to this regulation, and contend for four pounds upon dry Ore, and as much more as they can have, for wet. Whoever approves this rapacity must be an enemy to the county of Cornwall; for thefe allowances of one hundred weight upon twenty, and four pounds upon every three hundred weight, which is one quarter upon the ton (all together equal to fix per cent. on the foregoing profits) are more than ten times equivalent for all the wet and wafte they can seriously pretend to fuffer. Such is the prefent oppreffed state of the Copper trade in Cornwall; upon which reprefentation I shall reft at this time, but with an intention on a future day to lay open the feveral artifices ufed in that branch of bufinefs in a fmall pamphlet, for the mature confideration of the proprietors of Copper Mines in this county.

Preparatory

Preparatory to the final difpofal of Tin, it must pass an exchange of Black Tin or Ore for White Tin in blocks, by the way of barter between the Tinner and the Smelter, because the latter is not paid in money for smelting the Tin, but by deduction of a certain fhare in twenty to himself out of the quantity brought to be exchanged. Herein confifts a neceffary skill in the fmelter for the Metal of the affay of different kinds of Tin Ore being extremely variable, and not properly refinable in fuch fmall quantities, and the manner of agreeing for or buying the Tin Ore of all forts being to give Tin bills or promiffory notes to the owners thereof, engaging to deliver them at the next coinage fo many hundreds of refined Tin for every twenty hundred weight of the Ore or Black Tin; if the manager in this matter is not a judge how much pure Tin his impure aflay will produce, it will become a matter of meer chance whether the Tinner has the real value for his Black Tin, or whether he or the buyer fuffers moft by the exchange. The fmelter's judgment must be exercised alfo on another fcore befides that of the fineness of his assay, as he muft deduct from the quantity of Tin the feller's Ore will produce, as much as he thinks will pay for the smelting and other incidental charges, together with the profit he proposes to allow himself thereupon.

The affay being made, weighed, and calculated, and a judgment formed what proportion thereof is to be allowed the fmelter for his charges and profit, the business is reduced to a short treaty: A has brought to B twenty hundred weight of Black Tin (Tin Ore). Suppose the produce of this Tin twelve hundred weight; B offers to deliver A, for this, eleven hundred weight at the next coinage; which if A agrees to take, a promiffory note, commonly called a Tin Bill, is given him in the following terms, or nearly fo:

N° 123.

Carvedras, the 8th day of April 1777.

Received of Mr. Anthony Ashley, twenty hundred weight two quarters and fourteen pounds of Black Tin which at eleven for twenty in White Tin is eleven hundred weight one quarter and nine pounds. Which I promise to deliver to him or bearer this Truro coinage.

+ Qr. tb White Tin II I 9.

For H. R. Efq; and Co.

JONAS MILFORD.

This bill being negotiable and payable by an indorsement, the fame as a bill of exchange, the owner thereof may fell it to any one, or at the fmelting-houfe, as moft frequently is the cafe, for fome certain value per hundred weight; otherwife he may coin the Tin thereof upon his own account. Thefe bills

are frequently bought at a nominal value; the buyer and feller covenanting with each other, that if the real value, when fixed, be different from the nominal, whatever it may be above, the former is to pay to the latter, except one fhilling per hundred weight, the premium for laying out his money; if under, the feller is to return the difference, and one fhilling per hundred weight, for the reafon juft given. This method of purchafing is called Buying on Difcount; and the moft ufual way of fettling the real price for fuch Tin has been to fix it at that of the first hundred blocks bought or fold by any one perfon, of the Tin belonging to that coinage (or quarter) in which fuch bills were bought.

This makes what they call the Tin bill trade fo noted in this county; for if the Tinner is not of ability to wait the time of the coinage, and perhaps fome time after, till the merchant wants it, upon which alfo two or three months credit muft be added; he fells the bill for ready cash to the monied man, who defrays all future charges upon the Tin. The buyer has a further profit upon this Tin of two pounds over-weight upon every hundred weight of White Tin, which the fmelter is obligated to render the bill-holder; fo that the buyer of the bill has about two fhillings per hundred weight clear profit by this traffick; and if he can return his money quarterly, which was formerly the cafe, he makes twelve per cent. profit per annum of his cafh. The Tin bill trade was anciently in the hands of the mercantile part of the county, but it now principally rests with the fmelters of the Tin, who take care to operate on the credulity of the Tinner by infinuating that he has a larger exchange of White Tin for his Black when he parts with the former to the fmelter; and that, in complaifance for his obliging difpofition towards the proprietor of the houfe-This may be true; but, Fallax vulgi judicium.

There is one confideration that is connected with this fubject, that deferves much more attention than it has ever yet met with. These persons who ftand between the real and original proprietors of the Tin-ftuff and the exporters, though they have ufually the greatest share of the White Tin in their poffeflion, are not

to

to be looked on as the real fufferers by the low price it bears, or even by a stagnation of the Tin trade, unless it is unforefeen. Thefe gentlemen take care to make all proper deductions on that account when the Tin is brought to them to be fampled; and the discount on Tin bills, as I have just observed, is an additional douceur. I would not be fuppofed even to hint at a combination between the fmelter of the Tin and the manufacturer or exporter: the credit and fortune of many of the former place them above a bare infinuation of this kind. I only mean to affert, that however they may join the general cry on account of the low price of Tin, no thinking perfon will ever fet them down as fufferers thereby. There is a known fact I shall mention by way of illuftration, viz. That the retailer of any excifcable commodity ftands in the fame predicament, with the merchant who buys to fell again, and has as much reafon to be a lofer on an additional duty laid on that commodity; whereas, on the contrary, he is too frequently a gainer.

Till the reign of Hen. VIII. there were but two coinages a year for fin, viz. at Midsummer and Michaelmas, when the Tinners by petition and proving the inconveniency arifing from the long vacation between the latter and the former, obtained the liberty to coin their Tin quarterly by adding Christmas and Lady-day to the foregoing coinages; for which they pay to the duke of Cornwall an acknowledgment (called Poft-Groats) of fourpence extra for every hundred of White Tin coined in thofe quarters. The privileged towns for coinage of Tin were anciently Liskeard, Loftwithiel, Truro, and Helfton. For the conveniency of the western Tinners, foon after the restoration Penzance was alfo made a coinage town; in which last place, there is every quarter abundantly more Tin coined than in all the towns of Liskeard, Loftwithiel, and Helfton put together, for a whole year.

When the Tin is brought to be coined, it is carried into the coinage hall built on purpose to receive it, where the affay mafter's deputy affays it by cutting off with a chiffel and hammer a piece of one of the bottom corners of the block about a pound weight, partly by cutting and partly by breaking, in order to prove the toughness and finenefs of the Metal. If it is pure good Tin, the face of the block is ftamped with the duchy feal, which stamp is a permit for the owner to fell, and at the fame time an affurance that the Tin fo marked has been purposely examined and found merchantable. The stamping

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this