The Royal Mines Act 1688 (1 Will & Mary c 30), sometimes referred to as the Mines Royal Act, is an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

. This Act was partly in force in Great Britain at the end of 2010.The

Chronological Table of the Statutes The Chronological Table of the Statutes is a chronological list of the public Acts passed by the Parliament of England (1235–1706), the Parliament of Great Britain (1707–1800), and the Parliament of the United Kingdom (from 1801), as we ...

, 1235 - 2010.

The Stationery Office The Stationery Office (TSO) is a British publishing company created in 1996 when the publishing arm of His Majesty's Stationery Office was privatised. It is the official publisher and the distributor for legislation, command and house papers, ...

. 2011. . Part I. Page 68, read with pages viii and x. The Royal Mines Act 1688 repealed the ''Act Against Multipliers'' (5 Henry IV c. 4) (1404) which had made it a felony to create gold and silver by means of

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

. The Act specified also that "no mine of

tin Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal. Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, t ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

or,

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

, shall hereafter be adjudged, reputed, or taken to be a royal mine although gold or silver may be extracted out of the same." In doing so, the Act brought to an end the monopolies of the

Society of Mines Royal The Society of the Mines Royal was one of two English mining monopoly companies incorporated by royal charter in 1568, the other being the Company of Mineral and Battery Works. History On 28 May 1568, Elizabeth I established the Society by let ...

and the

Company of Mineral and Battery Works The Company of Mineral and Battery Works was, (with the Society of the Mines Royal), one of two mining monopolies created by Elizabeth I. The Company's rights were based on a patent granted to William Humfrey on 17 September 1565. This was replac ...

which had enjoyed exclusive rights to extract metal from certain mines. According to

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

, in a letter to John Locke,

Robert Boyle Robert Boyle (; 25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of ...

'procured the repeal of the Act of Parliament against Multipliers'. He further claimed that Boyle must then have had in his hands a recipe for the production of gold by alchemical means. The Royal Mines Act 1688, except the last section, was repealed by section 1 of, and the Schedule to, the

Statute Law Revision Act 1867 The Statute Law Revision Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vict c 59) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was intended, in particular, to facilitate the preparation of a revised edition of the statutes. This Act was partly in force in Great ...

Section 3

In this section, the words to "aforesaid that" were repealed by section 1 of, and Schedule 1 to, the Statute Law Revision Act 1948.

References

* Halsbury's Statutes,

External links

The Royal Mines Act 1688
as amended, from Legislation.gov.uk. {{UK legislation 1689 in law 1689 in England Acts of the Parliament of England Acts of the Parliament of England still in force Mining in England Mining law and governance

Section 3

See also

References

External links