Tut or Tribute?
The method of working and payment at
Wheal Friendship mine, Mary Tavy - 1800's
There were two basic methods of working in the hard-rock mining industry of Devon and Cornwall and two basic methods of payment.
It went like this:-
The Mine Captain would appear at the balcony window of the mine Count House
(accounting house) at the monthly "setting" time. He knew beforehand what
price HE wanted to pay to have the particular work carried out.
He would ask for bids to carry out the work that he was auctioning. The
leader of a group or gang of miners (known always as a "pair") would
shout out a bid. Other gang leaders would underbid him. This continued
until the price that the Mine Captain was willing to pay was reached.
At this point the Mine Captain would toss a pebble into the air and the
last bid received before it hit the ground was awarded the contract.
That was the bid accepted - ALWAYS!
Naturally, when men were hungry they would bid as low as possible to get the work. SOME paid work was better than NO paid work.
Unfortunately there was a great risk for the miners attached to this method.
As "tut" workers they had agreed to remove a specific amount of rock or
secure or set a certain amount of timber at a specific price within
a specific period.
If during excavations they hit a particularly hard section, were flooded
out or other such problem then they did not achieve their target. They
were only paid according to the amount bid for. This meant that they
could work for a whole month and not receive the full amount that they
anticipated receiving.
As an example of "tut" working - say that they contracted to cut
a section 100 fathoms long and 3ft wide by 6ft high and they only
achieved 80 fathoms due to unforeseen problems - they would only be paid the
percentage (80%) of the bid price agreed at the "setting" time.
Now, please remember that they were the lowest bidders! Therefore
it was very unlikely that they would have shown a profit or good wages
for their work anyway. Now they were to receive even less!
Just imagine a "pair" of perhaps 10 men who anticipated £10 each at the end of the month, now they would only receive £8.00 each.
Deducted from that sum would be payment to have their picks and chisels
sharpened to the mine blacksmith. They would have to pay the mining
company for all blasting powder and for tallow candles as a means of
lighting underground!
The end result was more often than not,
misery and despair! Men got rich and men became poor. Such was
the hard lot of copper and tin mining in Devon and Cornwall during
the 19th century.
Like the "tut" workers the "tributers" (tibuters dug out the actual mineral ore as opposed to "tut" workers who cut tunnels, shafts and adits etc.) had to bid at the "dutch auction" set up in front of the Count House balcony each setting time.
Tributers were very skilled men and were the cream of the crop. They knew
by experience what the ground below was like and approximately how much it
would cost to have their ore assayed and crushed at the surface.
What they did not know was, HOW MUCH VALUABLE MINERAL THEY WERE GOING TO GET TO THE SURFACE!
The thickness of the rich mineral seam could be 4ft wide one day and four
inches wide the next. They had to gamble on an unknown quantity. They
had agreed to be paid according to the value of the ore raised to the
surface and processed.
If it was rich and easily removed, all well and good - but bid for
and accepted at the LOWEST price! If not, then
they too were out of pocket. They too also had to pay to have their
tools sharpened, processing the ore at the surface, assaying and pay for
candles and blasting powder. They were "captives" of the mine owners, lock,
stock and barrel!
An additional problem was that they didn't get paid until the mining company
had been paid by the smelter who bought the mineral! It was only then that
the mining company paid the tributer.
This was a long process and therefore
the tributers were paid once every two months - if there was any money sent
down from Head Office at all! All too frequently there wasn't.
Remember the story about the Tavistock token? It applied to them too!
Another point to be made is that the miners were not allowed to store up
any mineral extracted during an easy dig for sending to the surface at
a later date when digging was perhaps harder or less productive.
The Mine Captain ensured that all mineral dug was passed to the surface as
soon as it was available. Ore had no value underground, only at the smelters.
There was no safety net or building up a credit for hard times.
Another point to remember too is that if either a "tut" or "tribute" worker did go back on his word and refuse to carry out the agreed bid he was immediately sacked and he was blacklisted throughout the mining industry in the whole South West!
This made for a very poor, under-nourished, desperate, community. To help to
alleviate the poverty children of 12yrs of age went underground to work
beside their fathers. Women worked as "bal maidens", hand-picking the ores
and breaking rocks too large for the crushers with heavy spalling hammers.
Eventually, of course, easier worked deposits of copper were discovered
overseas and the miners were forced to travel to the four corners of the
globe to earn a living.
They went to the goldfields of America, Africa, India and Australia and
mineral mines of S.America and Portugal; others went to Egypt to mine for
phosphates and the like. Some returned home rich men, others not so rich, and others died
in the attempt to put bread in the mouths of their loved ones at home.
My grandfather and my father both went off from Mary Tavy in the early
1900s to seek their fortunes. They found none but at least came home again.
I have seen the waste tips and discarded mine buildings and machinery gradually
disappear over the years and soon there will be nothing left but contaminated
soils and sad memories.
I clambered as a child over the massive water wheels
that drove the machinery, climbed in and out of the shattered "stamps"
which crushed the ores and pulverized them to talc-like grains to be
refined and separated from the useless fractions.
Now all is gone and the population are mainly retired upper middle-class, with index-linked pensions and strong ideas as to what we as a community want to keep us in order!
If only they were aware of the heart-ache, tears and blood that has spilled
beneath their feet as they walk the paths and byways, the footpaths and
woods that abound!
I wonder if they would understand? I wonder if they
would love the soil, the stones, the very hedgerows as I do?
I wonder...