De Re Metallica · Georg Agricola
I now come to the Jurors, who are men experienced in mining matters and of good repute. Their number is greater or less as there are few or more mines; thus if there are ten mines there will be five pairs of Jurors, like a decemviral college. Into however many divisions the total number of mines has been divided, so many divisions has the body of Jurors; each pair of Jurors usually visits some of the mines whose administration is under their supervision on every day that workmen are employed; it is usually so arranged that they visit all the mines in the space of fourteen days. They inspect and consider all details, and deliberate and consult with the mine foreman on matters relating to the underground workings, machinery, timbering, and everything else. They also jointly with the mine foreman from time to time make the price per fathom to the workmen for mining the ore, fixing it at a high or low price, according to whether the rock is hard or soft; if, however, the contractors find that an unforeseen and unexpected hardness occurs, and for that reason have difficulty and delay in carrying out their work, the Jurors allow them something in excess of the price fixed; while if there is a softness by reason of water, and the work is done more easily and quickly, they deduct something from the price. Further, if the Jurors discover manifest negligence or fraud on the part of any foreman or workman, they first admonish or reprimand him as to his duties and obligations, and if he does not become more diligent and improve, the matter is reported to the Bergmeister, who by right of his authority deprives such persons of their functions and office, or, if they have committed a crime, throws them into prison. Lastly, because the Jurors have been given to the Bergmeister as councillors and advisors, in their absence he does not confirm the right over any mine, nor measure the mines, nor fix their boundaries, nor settle disputes about boundaries, nor pronounce judgment, nor, finally, does he without them listen to any account of profits and expenditure.
Now the Mining Clerk enters each mine in his books, the new mines in one book, the old mines which have been re-opened in another. This is done in the following way: first is written the name of the man who has applied for the right over the mine, then the day and hour on which he made his application, then the vein and the locality in which it is situated, next the conditions on which the right has been given, and lastly, the day on which the Bergmeister confirmed it. A document containing all these particulars is also given to the person whose right over a mine has been confirmed. The Mining Clerk also sets down in another book the names of the owners of each mine over which the right has been confirmed; in another any intermission of work permitted to any person for certain reasons by the Bergmeister; in another the money which one mine supplies to another for drawing off water or making machinery; and in another the decisions of the Bergmeister and the Jurors, and the disputes settled by them as honorary arbitrators. All these matters he enters in the books on Wednesday of every week; if holidays fall on that day he does it on the following Thursday. Every Saturday he enters in another book the total expenses of the preceding week, the account of which the mine manager has rendered; but the total quarterly expenses of each mine manager, he enters in a special book at his own convenience. He enters similarly in another book a list of owners who have been proscribed. Lastly, that no one may be able to bring a charge of falsification against him, all these books are enclosed in a chest with two locks, the key of one of which is kept by the Mining Clerk, and of the other by the Bergmeister.
The Share Clerk enters in a book the owners of each mine whom the first finder of the vein names to him, and from time to time replaces the names of the sellers with those of the buyers of the shares. It sometimes happens that twenty or more owners come into the possession of some particular share. Unless, however, the seller is present, or has sent a letter to the Mining Clerk with his seal, or better still with the seal of the Mayor of the town where he dwells, his name is not replaced by that of anyone else; for if the Share Clerk is not sufficiently cautious, the law requires him to restore the late owner wholly to his former position. He writes out a fresh document, and in this way gives proof of possession. Four times a year, when the accounts of the quarterly expenditure are rendered, he names the new proprietors to the manager of each mine, that the manager may know from whom he should demand contributions and among whom to distribute the profits of the mines. For this work the mine manager pays the Clerk a fixed fee.
I will now speak of the duties of the mine manager. In the case of the owners of every mine which is not yielding metal, the manager announces to the proprietors their contributions in a document which is affixed to the doors of the town hall, such contributions being large or small, according as the Bergmeister and two Jurors determine. If anyone fails to pay these contributions for the space of a month, the manager removes their names from the list of owners, and makes their shares the common property of the other proprietors. And so, whomsoever the mine manager names as not having paid his contribution, that same man the Mining Clerk designates in writing, and so also does the Share Clerk. Of the contribution, the mine manager applies part to the payment of the foreman and workmen, and lays by a part to purchase at the lowest price the necessary things for the mine, such as iron tools, nails, firewood, planks, buckets, drawing-ropes, or grease. But in the case of a mine which is yielding metal, the Tithe-gatherer pays the mine manager week by week as much money as suffices to discharge the workmen's wages and to provide the necessary implements for mining. The mine manager of each mine also, in the presence of its foreman, on Saturday in each week renders an account of his expenses to the Bergmeister and the Jurors, he renders an account of his receipts, whether the money has been contributed by the owners or taken from the Tithe-gatherer; and of his quarterly expenditure in the same way to them and to the Mining Prefect and to the Mining Clerk, four times a year at the appointed time; for just as there are four seasons of the year, namely, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, so there are fourfold accounts of profits and expenses. In the beginning of the first month of each quarter an account is rendered of the money which the manager has spent on the mine during the previous quarter, then of the profit which he has taken from it during the same period; for example, the account which is rendered at the beginning of spring is an account of all the profits and expenses of each separate week of winter, which have been entered by the Mining Clerk in the book of accounts. If the manager has spent the money of the proprietors advantageously in the mine and has faithfully looked after it, everyone praises him as a diligent and honest man; if through ignorance in these matters he has caused loss, he is generally deprived of his office; if by his carelessness and negligence the owners have suffered loss, the Bergmeister compels him to make good the loss; and finally, if he has been guilty of fraud or theft, he is punished with fine, prison, or death. Further, it is the business of the manager to see that the foreman of the mine is present at the beginning and end of the shifts, that he digs the ore in an advantageous manner, and makes the required timbering, machines, and drains. The manager also makes the deductions from the pay of the workmen whom the foreman has noted as negligent. Next, if the mine is rich in metal, the manager must see that its ore-house is closed on those days on which no work is performed; and if it is a rich vein of gold or silver, he sees that the miners promptly transfer the output from the shaft or tunnel into a chest or into the strong room next to the house where the foreman dwells, that no opportunity for theft may be given to dishonest persons. This duty he shares in common with the foreman, but the one which follows is peculiarly his own. When ore is smelted he is present in person, and watches that the smelting is performed carefully and advantageously. If from it gold or silver is melted out, when it is melted in the cupellation furnace he enters the weight of it in his books and carries it to the Tithe-gatherer, who similarly writes a note of its weight in his books; it is then conveyed to the refiner. When it has been brought back, both the Tithe-gatherer and manager again enter its weight in their books. Why again? Because he looks after the goods of the owners just as if they were his own. Now the laws which relate to mining permit a manager to have charge of more than one mine, but in the case of mines yielding gold or silver, to have charge of only two. If, however, several mines following the head-mine begin to produce metal, he remains in charge of these others until he is freed from the duty of looking after them by the Bergmeister. Last of all, the manager, the Bergmeister, and the two Jurors, in agreement with the owners, settle the remuneration for the labourers. Enough of the duties and occupation of the manager.
I will now leave the manager, and discuss him who controls the workmen of the mine, who is therefore called the foreman, although some call him the watchman. It is he who distributes the work among the labourers, and sees diligently that each faithfully and usefully performs his duties. He also discharges workmen on account of incompetence, or negligence, and supplies others in their places if the two Jurors and manager give their consent. He must be skilful in working wood, that he may timber shafts, place posts, and make underground structures capable of supporting an undermined mountain, lest the rocks from the hangingwall of the veins, not being supported, become detached from the mass of the mountain and overwhelm the workmen with destruction. He must be able to make and lay out the drains in the tunnels, into which the water from the veins, stringers, and seams in the rocks may collect, that it may be properly guided and can flow away. Further, he must be able to recognize veins and stringers, so as to sink shafts to the best advantage, and must be able to discern one kind of material which is mined from another, or to train his subordinates that they may separate the materials correctly. He must also be well acquainted with all methods of washing, so as to teach the washers how the metalliferous earth or sand is washed. He supplies the miners with iron tools when they are about to start to work in the mines, and apportions a certain weight of oil for their lamps, and trains them to dig to the best advantage, and sees that they work faithfully. When their shift is finished, he takes back the oil which has been left. On account of his numerous and important duties and labours, only one mine is entrusted to one foreman, nay, rather sometimes two or three foremen are set over one mine.
Since I have mentioned the shifts, I will briefly explain how these are carried on. The twenty-four hours of a day and night are divided into three shifts, and each shift consists of seven hours. The three remaining hours are intermediate between the shifts, and form an interval during which the workmen enter and leave the mines. The first shift begins at the fourth hour in the morning and lasts till the eleventh hour; the second begins at the twelfth and is finished at the seventh; these two are day shifts in the morning and afternoon. The third is the night shift, and commences at the eighth hour in the evening and finishes at the third in the morning. The Bergmeister does not allow this third shift to be imposed upon the workmen unless necessity demands it. In that case, whether they draw water from the shafts or mine the ore, they keep their vigil by the night lamps, and to prevent themselves falling asleep from the late hours or from fatigue, they lighten their long and arduous labours by singing, which is neither wholly untrained nor unpleasing. In some places one miner is not allowed to undertake two shifts in succession, because it often happens that he either falls asleep in the mine, overcome by exhaustion from too much labour, or arrives too late for his shift, or leaves sooner than he ought. Elsewhere he is allowed to do so, because he cannot subsist on the pay of one shift, especially if provisions grow dearer. The Bergmeister does not, however, forbid an extraordinary shift when he concedes only one ordinary shift. When it is time to go to work the sound of a great bell, which the foreigners call a "campana," gives the workmen warning, and when this is heard they run hither and thither through the streets toward the mines. Similarly, the same sound of the bell warns the foreman that a shift has just been finished; therefore as soon as he hears it, he stamps on the woodwork of the shaft and signals the workmen to come out. Thereupon, the nearest as soon as they hear the signal, strike the rocks with their hammers, and the sound reaches those who are furthest away. Moreover, the lamps show that the shift has come to an end when the oil becomes almost consumed and fails them. The labourers do not work on Saturdays, but buy those things which are necessary to life, nor do they usually work on Sundays or annual festivals, but on these occasions devote the shift to holy things. However, the workmen do not rest and do nothing if necessity demands their labour; for sometimes a rush of water compels them to work, sometimes an impending fall, sometimes something else, and at such times it is not considered irreligious to work on holidays. Moreover, all workmen of this class are strong and used to toil from birth.
The chief kinds of workmen are miners, shovellers, windlass men, carriers, sorters, washers, and smelters, as to whose duties I will speak in the following books, in their proper place. At present it is enough to add this one fact, that if the workmen have been reported by the foreman for negligence, the Bergmeister, or even the foreman himself, jointly with the manager, dismisses them from their work on Saturday, or deprives them of part of their pay; or if for fraud, throws them into prison. However, the owners of works in which the metals are smelted, and the master of the smelter, look after their own men. As to the government and duties of miners, I have now said enough; I will explain them more fully in another work entitled De Jure et Legibus Metallicis.
END OF BOOK IV.
AGRICOLA. GERMAN GLOSSARY. TERM ADOPTED. Praefectus Metallorum Bergamptmann Mining Prefect. Magister Metallicorum Bergmeister Bergmeister. Scriba Magister Bergmeister's schreiber Bergmeister's clerk. Metallicorum Jurati Geschwornen Jurates or Jurors. Publicus Signator Gemeiner sigler Notary. Decumanus Zehender Tithe gatherer. Distributor Aussteiler Cashier. Scriba partium Gegenschreiber Share clerk. Scriba fodinarum Bergschreiber Mining clerk. Praefectus fodinae } Steiger { Manager of the Mine. Praefectus cuniculi } { Manager of the Tunnel. Praeses fodinae } Schichtmeister { Foreman of the Mine. Praeses cuniculi } { Foreman of the Tunnel. Fossores Berghauer Miners or diggers. Ingestores Berganschlagen Shovellers. Vectarii Hespeler Lever workers (windlass men). Discretores Ertzpucher Sorters. Lotores Wescher und seiffner Washers, buddlers, sifters, etc. Excoctores Schmeltzer Smelters. Purgator Argenti Silber brenner Silver refiner. Magister Monetariorum Muentzmeister Master of the Mint. Monetarius Muentzer Coiner. Area fodinarum Masse Meer. Area Capitis Fodinarum Fundgrube Head meer. Demensum Lehen Measure.
Greek-- Dactylos = .76 inches 16 = Pous = 12.13 inches 6 = Orguia = 72.81 inches.
Roman-- Uncia = .97 " 12 = Pes = 11.6 " 5 = Passus = 58.1 "
German-- Zoll = .93 " 12 = Werckschuh = 11.24 " 6 = Lachter = 67.5 "
English-- Inch = 1.0 " 12 = Foot = 12.00 " 6 = Fathom = 72.0 "
The discrepancies are due to variations in authorities and to decimals dropped. The werckschuh taken is the Chemnitz foot deduced from Agricola's statement in his De Mensuris et Ponderibus, Basel, 1533, p. 29. For further notes see Appendix C.
The conception as to which of these classes had a right in the title have been by no means the same in different places at the same time, and in all it varies with different periods; but the whole range of legislation indicates the encroachment of one factor in the community over another, so that their relative rights have been the cause of never-ending contention, ever since a record of civil and economic contentions began. In modern times, practically over the whole world, the State has in effect taken the rights from the Overlord, but his claims did not cease until his claims over the bodies of his subjects also ceased. However, he still remains in many places with his picture on the coinage. The Landlord has passed through many vicissitudes; his complete right to minerals was practically never admitted until the doctrine of laissez-faire had become a matter of faith, and this just in time to vest him with most of the coal and iron deposits in the world; this, no doubt, being also partially due to the little regard in which such deposits were generally held at that time, and therefore to the little opposition to his ever-ready pretentions. Their numbers, however, and their prominence in the support of the political powers de jure have usually obtained them some recognition. In the rise of individualism, the apogee of the laissez-faire fetish came about the time of the foundation of the United States, and hence the relaxation in the claims of the State in that country and the corresponding position attained by the landlord and miner. The discoverer and the operator--that is, the miner himself--has, however, had to be reckoned with by all three of the other claimants, because they have almost universally sought to escape the risks of mining, to obtain the most skilful operation, and to stimulate the productivity of the mines; thereupon the miner has secured at least partial consideration. This stands out in all times and all places, and while the miner has had to take the risks of his fortuitous calling, the Overlord, State, or Landlord have all made for complacent safety by demanding some kind of a tithe on his exertions. Moreover, there has often been a low cunning displayed by these powers in giving something extra to the first discoverer. In these relations of the powers to the mine operator, from the very first we find definite records of the imposition of certain conditions with extraordinary persistence--so fixed a notion that even the United States did not quite escape it. This condition was, no doubt, designed as a stimulus to productive activity, and was the requirement that the miner should continuously employ himself digging in the piece of ground allotted to him. The Greeks, Romans, Mediaeval Germans, old and modern Englishmen, modern Australians, all require the miner to keep continuously labouring at his mines, or lose his title. The American, as his inauguration of government happened when things were easier for individuals, allows him a vacation of 11 months in the year for a few years, and finally a holiday altogether. There are other points where the Overlord, the State, or the Landlord have always considered that they had a right to interfere, principally as to the way the miner does his work, lest he should miss, or cause to be missed, some of the mineral; so he has usually been under pains and penalties as to his methods--these quite apart from the very proper protection to human life, which is purely a modern invention, largely of the miner himself. Somebody has had to keep peace and settle disputes among the usually turbulent miners (for what other sort of operators would undertake the hazards and handicaps?), and therefore special officials and codes, or Courts, for his benefit are of the oldest and most persistent of institutions.
Between the Overlord and the Landowner the fundamental conflict of view as to their respective rights has found its interpretation in the form of the mineral title. The Overlord claimed the metals as distinguished from the land, while the landowner claimed all beneath his soil. Therefore, we find two forms of title--that in which the miner could follow the ore regardless of the surface (the "apex" conception), and that in which the boundaries were vertical from the land surface. Lest the Americans think that the Apex Law was a sin original to themselves, we may mention that it was made use of in Europe a few centuries before Agricola, who will be found to set it out with great precision.
From these points of view, more philosophical than legal, we present a few notes on various ancient laws of mines, though space forbids a discussion of a tithe of the amount it deserves at some experienced hand.
Of the Ancient Egyptian, Lydian, Assyrian, Persian, Indian, and Chinese laws as to mines we have no record, but they were of great simplicity, for the bodies as well as the property of subjects were at the abject disposition of the Overlord. We are informed on countless occasions of Emperors, Kings, and Princes of various degree among these races, owning and operating mines with convicts, soldiers, or other slaves, so we may take it for certain that continuous labour was enforced, and that the boundaries, inspection, and landlords did not cause much anxiety. However, herein lies the root of regalian right.
Our first glimpse of a serious right of the subject to mines is among some of the Greek States, as could be expected from their form of government. With republican ideals, a rich mining district at Mount Laurion, an enterprising and contentious people, it would be surprising indeed if Athenian Literature was void on the subject. While we know that the active operation of these mines extended over some 500 years, from 700 to 200 B.C., the period of most literary reference was from 400 to 300 B.C. Our information on the subject is from two of Demosthenes' orations--one against Pantaenetus, the other against Phaenippus--the first mining lawsuit in which the address of counsel is extant. There is also available some information in Xenophon's Essay upon the Revenues, Aristotle's Constitution of Athens, Lycurgus' prosecution of Diphilos, the Tablets of the Poletae, and many incidental references and inscriptions of minor order. The minerals were the property of the State, a conception apparently inherited from the older civilizations. Leases for exploitation were granted to individuals for terms of three to ten years, depending upon whether the mines had been previously worked, thus a special advantage was conferred upon the pioneer. The leases did not carry surface rights, but the boundaries at Mt. Laurion were vertical, as necessarily must be the case everywhere in horizontal deposits. What they were elsewhere we do not know. The landlord apparently got nothing. The miner must continuously operate his mine, and was required to pay a large tribute to the State, either in the initial purchase of his lease or in annual rent. There were elaborate regulations as to interference and encroachment, and proper support of the workings. Diphilos was condemned to death and his fortune confiscated for robbing pillars. The mines were worked with slaves.
The Romans were most intensive miners and searchers after metallic wealth already mined. The latter was obviously the objective of most Roman conquest, and those nations rich in these commodities, at that time necessarily possessed their own mines. Thus a map showing the extensions of Empire coincides in an extraordinary manner with the metal distribution of Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Further, the great indentations into the periphery of the Imperial map, though many were rich from an agricultural point of view, had no lure to the Roman because they had no mineral wealth. On the Roman law of mines the student is faced with many perplexities. With the conquest of the older States, the plunderers took over the mines and worked them, either by leases from the State to public companies or to individuals; or even in some cases worked them directly by the State. There was thus maintained the concept of State ownership of the minerals which, although apparently never very specifically defined, yet formed a basis of support to the contention of regalian rights in Europe later on. Parallel with this system, mines were discovered and worked by individuals under tithe to the State, and in Pliny (XXXIV, 49) there is reference to the miners in Britain limiting their own output. Individual mining appears to have increased with any relaxation of central authority, as for instance under Augustus. It appears, as a rule, that the mines were held on terminable leases, and that the State did at times resume them; the labour was mostly slaves. As to the detailed conditions under which the mine operator held his title, we know less than of the Greeks--in fact, practically nothing other than that he paid a tithe. The Romans maintained in each mining district an official--the Procurator Metallorum--who not only had general charge of the leasing of the mines on behalf of the State, but was usually the magistrate of the district. A bronze tablet found near Aljustrel, in Portugal, in 1876, generally known as the Aljustrel Tablet, appears to be the third of a series setting out the regulations of the mining district. It refers mostly to the regulation of public auctions, the baths, barbers, and tradesmen; but one clause (VII.) is devoted to the regulation of those who work dumps of scoria, etc., and provides for payment to the administrator of the mines of a capitation on the slaves employed. It does not, however, so far as we can determine, throw any light upon the actual regulations for working the mines. (Those interested will find ample detail in Jacques Flach, "La Table de Bronze d'Aljustrel: Nouvelle Revue Historique de Droit Francais et Etranger," 1878, p. 655; Estacio da Veiga, Memorias da Acad. Real das Ciencias de Lisbon, Nova Scrie, Tome V, Part II, Lisbon, 1882.) Despite the systematic law of property evolved by the Romans, the codes contain but small reference to mines, and this in itself is indirect evidence of the concept that they were the property of the State. Any general freedom of the metals would have given rise to a more extensive body of law. There are, of course, the well-known sections in the Justinian and Theodosian Codes, but the former in the main bears on the collection of the tithe and the stimulation of mining by ordering migrant miners to return to their own hearths. There is also some intangible prohibition of mining near edifices. There is in the Theodosian code evident extension of individual right to mine or quarry, and this "freeing" of the mines was later considerably extended. The Empire was, however, then on the decline; and no doubt it was hoped to stimulate the taxable commodities. There is nothing very tangible as to the position of the landlord with regard to minerals found on his property; the metals were probably of insufficient frequency on the land of Italian landlords to matter much, and the attitude toward subject races was not usually such as to require an extensive body of law.
In the chaos of the Middle Ages, Europe was governed by hundreds of potentates, great and small, who were unanimous on one point, and this that the minerals were their property. In the bickerings among themselves, the stronger did not hesitate to interpret the Roman law in affirming regalian rights as an excuse to dispossess the weaker. The rights to the mines form no small part of the differences between these Potentates and the more important of their subjects; and with the gradual accretion of power into a few hands, we find only the most powerful of vassals able to resist such encroachment. However, as to what position the landlord or miner held in these rights, we have little indication until about the beginning of the 13th century, after which there appear several well-known charters, which as time went on were elaborated into practical codes of mining law. The earliest of these charters are those of the Bishop of Trent, 1185; that of the Harz Miners, 1219; of the town of Iglau in 1249. Many such in connection with other districts appear throughout the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. (References to the most important of such charters may be found in Sternberg, Umrisse der Geschichte des Bergbaues, Prague, 1838; Eisenhart, De Regali Metalli Fodinarium, Helmestadt, 1681; Gmelin, Beytraege zur Geschichte des Teutschen Bergbaus, Halle, 1783; Inama-Sternegg, Deutsche Wirthschaftsgeschichte, Leipzig, 1879-1901; Transactions, Royal Geol. Soc. Cornwall VI, 155; Lewis, The Stannaries, New York, 1908.) By this time a number of mining communities had grown up, and the charters in the main are a confirmation to them of certain privileges; they contain, nevertheless, rigorous reservation of the regalian right. The landlord, where present, was usually granted some interest in the mine, but had to yield to the miner free entry. The miner was simply a sort of tributer to the Crown, loaded with an obligation when upon private lands to pay a further portion of his profits to the landlord. He held tenure only during strenuous operation. However, it being necessary to attract skilled men, they were granted many civil privileges not general to the people; and from many of the principal mining towns "free cities" were created, possessing a measure of self-government. There appear in the Iglau charter of 1249 the first symptoms of the "apex" form of title, this being the logical development of the conception that the minerals were of quite distinct ownership from the land. The law, as outlined by Agricola, is much the same as set out in the Iglavian Charter of three centuries before, and we must believe that such fully developed conceptions as that charter conveys were but the confirmation of customs developed over generations.
In France the landlord managed to maintain a stronger position vis-a-vis with the Crown, despite much assertion of its rights; and as a result, while the landlord admitted the right to a tithe for the Crown, he maintained the actual possession, and the boundaries were defined with the land.
In England the law varied with special mining communities, such as Cornwall, Devon, the Forest of Dean, the Forest of Mendip, Alston Moor, and the High Peak, and they exhibit a curious complex of individual growth, of profound interest to the student of the growth of institutions. These communities were of very ancient origin, some of them at least pre-Roman; but we are, except for the reference in Pliny, practically without any idea of their legal doings until after the Norman occupation (1066 A.D.). The genius of these conquerors for systematic government soon led them to inquire into the doings of these communities, and while gradually systematising their customs into law, they lost no occasion to assert the regalian right to the minerals. In the two centuries subsequent to their advent there are on record numerous inquisitions, with the recognition and confirmation of "the customs and liberties which had existed from time immemorial," always with the reservation to the Crown of some sort of royalty. Except for the High Peak in Derbyshire, the period and origin of these "customs and liberties" are beyond finding out, as there is practically no record of English History between the Roman withdrawal and the Norman occupation. There may have been "liberties" under the Romans, but there is not a shred of evidence on the subject, and our own belief is that the forms of self-government which sprang up were the result of the Roman evacuation. The miner had little to complain of in the Norman treatment in these matters; but between the Crown and the landlord as represented by the Barons, Lords of the Manor, etc., there were wide differences of opinion on the regalian rights, for in the extreme interpretation of the Crown it tended greatly to curtail the landlord's position in the matter, and the success of the Crown on this subject was by no means universal. In fact, a considerable portion of English legal history of mines is but the outcropping of this conflict, and one of the concessions wrung from King John at Runnymede in 1215 was his abandonment of a portion of such claims.
The mining communities of Cornwall and Devon were early in the 13th century definitely chartered into corporations--"The Stannaries"--possessing definite legislative and executive functions, judicial powers, and practical self-government; but they were required to make payment of the tithe in the shape of "coinage" on the tin. Such recognition, while but a ratification of prior custom, was not obtained without struggle, for the Norman Kings early asserted wide rights over the mines. Tangible record of mining in these parts, from a legal point of view, practically begins with a report by William de Wrotham in 1198 upon his arrangements regarding the coinage. A charter of King John in 1201, while granting free right of entry to the miners, thus usurped the rights of the landlords--a claim which he was compelled by the Barons to moderate; the Crown, as above mentioned did maintain its right to a royalty, but the landlord held the minerals. It is not, however, until the time of Richard Carew's "Survey of Cornwall" (London, 1602) that we obtain much insight into details of miners' title, and the customs there set out were maintained in broad principle down to the 19th century. At Carew's time the miner was allowed to prospect freely upon "Common" or wastrel lands (since mostly usurped by landlords), and upon mineral discovery marked his boundaries, within which he was entitled to the vertical contents. Even upon such lands, however, he must acknowledge the right of the lord of the manor to a participation in the mine. Upon "enclosed" lands he had no right of entry without the consent of the landlord; in fact, the minerals belonged to the land as they do to-day except where voluntarily relinquished. In either case he was compelled to "renew his bounds" once a year, and to operate more or less continuously to maintain the right once obtained. There thus existed a "labour condition" of variable character, usually imposed more or less vigorously in the bargains with landlords. The regulations in Devonshire differed in the important particular that the miner had right of entry to private lands, although he was not relieved of the necessity to give a participation of some sort to the landlord. The Forests of Dean, Mendip, and other old mining communities possessed a measure of self-government, which do not display any features in their law fundamentally different from those of Cornwall and Devon. The High Peak lead mines of Derbyshire, however, exhibit one of the most profoundly interesting of these mining communities. As well as having distinctively Saxon names for some of the mines, the customs there are of undoubted Saxon origin, and as such their ratification by the Normans caused the survival of one of the few Saxon institutions in England--a fact which, we believe, has been hitherto overlooked by historians. Beginning with inquisitions by Edward I. in 1288, there is in the Record Office a wealth of information, the bare titles of which form too extensive a list to set out here. (Of published works, the most important are Edward Manlove's "The Liberties and Customs of the Lead Mines within the Wapentake of Wirksworth," London, 1653, generally referred to as the "Rhymed Chronicle"; Thomas Houghton, "Rara Avis in Terra," London, 1687; William Hardy, "The Miner's Guide," Sheffield, 1748; Thomas Tapping, "High Peak Mineral Customs," London, 1851.) The miners in this district were presided over by a "Barmaster," "Barghmaster," or "Barmar," as he was variously spelled, all being a corruption of the German Bergmeister, with precisely the same functions as to the allotment of title, settlement of disputes, etc., as his Saxon progenitor had, and, like him, he was advised by a jury. The miners had entry to all lands except churchyards (this regulation waived upon death), and a few similar exceptions, and was subject to royalty to the Crown and the landlord. The discoverer was entitled to a finder's "meer" of extra size, and his title was to the vein within the end lines, i.e., the "apex" law. This title was held subject to rigorous labour conditions, amounting to forfeiture for failure to operate the mine for a period of nine weeks. Space does not permit of the elaboration of the details of this subject, which we hope to pursue elsewhere in its many historical bearings. Among these we may mention that if the American "Apex law" is of English descent, it must be laid to the door of Derbyshire, and not of Cornwall, as is generally done. Our own belief, however, is that the American "apex" conception came straight from Germany.
It is not our purpose to follow these inquiries into mining law beyond the 15th century, but we may point out that with the growth of the sentiment of individualism the miners and landlords obtained steadily wider and wider rights at the cost of the State, until well within the 19th century. The growth of stronger communal sentiment since the middle of the last century has already found its manifestation in the legislation with regard to mines, for the laws of South Africa, Australia, and England, and the agitation in the United States are all toward greater restrictions on the mineral ownership in favour of the State.
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