The Economics of English Mining in the Middle Ages is the

economic history Economic history is the study of history using methodological tools from economics or with a special attention to economic phenomena. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the Applied economics ...

of English mining from the Norman invasion in 1066, to the death of Henry VII in 1509. England's economy was fundamentally agricultural throughout the period, but the mining of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored 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, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

, and later

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

, played an important part within the English medieval economy.

Invasion and the early Norman period (1066–1100)

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

invaded England in 1066, defeating the Anglo-Saxon King

Harold Godwinson Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon King of England. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman ...

at the

Battle of Hastings The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place appr ...

and placing the country under Norman rule. This campaign was followed by fierce military operations known as the

Harrying of the North The Harrying of the North was a series of military campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, where the presence of the last House of Wessex, Wessex claimant, Edgar Ætheling, had encour ...

between 1069 and 1070, extending Norman authority across the north of England. William's system of government was broadly

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

in that the right to possess land was linked to service to the king, but in many other ways the invasion did little to alter the nature of the English economy and mining enterprises.

Mid-medieval growth (1100–1290)

Mining did not make up a large part of the English medieval economy, but the 12th and 13th centuries saw an increased demand for metals in England, thanks to the considerable population growth and building construction, including the great cathedrals and churches. Four metals were mined commercially in England during the period:

and

using a variety of refining techniques.

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

was also mined from the 13th century onwards, Iron mining occurred in several locations including the main English center in the

Forest of Dean The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the Counties of England, county of Gloucestershire, England. It forms a roughly triangle, triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and no ...

, as well as in Durham and the

Weald The Weald () is an area of South East England between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, Surrey, West Sussex, East Sussex, and Kent. It has three parts, the sandstone "High W ...

. Some iron to meet English demand was also imported from the continent, especially by the late 13th century.Geddes, p.169. By end of the 12th century, the older method of acquiring iron ore through

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

was being supplemented by more advanced techniques, including tunnels, trenches and bell-pits. Iron ore was usually locally processed at a

bloomery A bloomery is a type of metallurgical furnace once used widely for smelting iron from its iron oxides, oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. Bloomeries produce a porous mass of iron and slag called ...

and by the 14th century the first water-powered iron forge in England was built at Chingley. As a result of the diminishing woodlands and consequent increases in the cost of both wood and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, ca ...

, demand for coal increased in the 12th century and began to be commercially produced from bell-pits and strip mining.Bailey, p.52. A silver boom occurred in England after the discovery of silver near

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

in 1133. Huge quantities of silver were produced from a semicircle of mines reaching across

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, Durham and

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

- up to three to four tonnes of silver were mined each year, more than ten times the previous annual production across the whole of Europe.Blanchard, p.29. The result was a local economic boom and a major uplift to 12th century royal finances.

Tin mining Tin mining began early in the Bronze Age, as bronze is a copper-tin alloy. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth's crust, with approximately 2 ppm (parts per million), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm. History Tin extraction and use ca ...

was centred in

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, exploiting

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

deposits and governed by the special Stannary Courts and Parliaments - tin formed a valuable

export good A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. The term can also be used to refer to trade over land or water. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a singl ...

, initially to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and then later in the 14th century to the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

. Lead was usually mined as a by-product of mining for silver, with mines in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, Durham and the north, as well as in Devon. Economically fragile, the lead mines usually survived as a result of being subsidised by silver production.

Mid-medieval economic crisis - the Great Famine and the Black Death (1290–1350)

Great Famine

The Great Famine of 1315 began a number of acute crises in the English agrarian economy. The famine centered on a sequence of harvest failures in 1315, 1316 and 1321, combined with an outbreak of the

murrain The word "murrain" (like an archaic use of the word "distemper") is an antiquated term covering various infectious diseases affecting cattle and sheep. The word originates from Middle English ''moreine'' or ''moryne'', in parallel to Late Latin ...

sickness amongst sheep and oxen between 1319 and 1321 and the fatal

ergotism Ergotism (pron. ) is the effect of long-term ergot poisoning, traditionally due to the ingestion of the alkaloids produced by the '' Claviceps purpurea'' fungus—from the Latin "club" or clavus "nail" and for "head", i.e. the purple club-h ...

fungi amongst the remaining stocks of wheat. In the ensuing famine, many people died and the peasantry were said to have been forced to eat horses, dogs and cats as well to have conducted

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

against children, although these last reports are usually considered to be exaggerations. The Great Famine firmly reversed the population growth of the 12th and 13th centuries and left a domestic economy that was "profoundly shaken, but not destroyed".

Black Death

The

Black Death The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic that occurred in Europe from 1346 to 1353. It was one of the list of epidemics, most fatal pandemics in human history; as many as people perished, perhaps 50% of Europe's 14th century population. ...

epidemic first arrived in England in 1348, re-occurring in waves during 1360-1362, 1368-1369, 1375 and more sporadically thereafter. The most immediate economic impact of this disaster was the widespread loss of life, between around 27% mortality amongst the upper classes, to 40-70% amongst the peasantry.The precise mortality figures for the Black Death have been debated at length for many years. Despite the very high loss of life, few settlements were abandoned during the epidemic itself, but many were badly affected or nearly eliminated altogether. The medieval authorities did their best to respond in an organised fashion, but the economic disruption was immense. Building work ceased and many mining operations paused. In the short term, efforts were taken by the authorities to control wages and enforce pre-epidemic working conditions.Fryde and Fryde, p.753. Coming on top of the previous years of famine, however, the longer term economic implications were profound. In contrast to the previous centuries of rapid growth, the English population would not begin to recover for over a century, despite the many positive reasons for a resurgence. The crisis would affect English mining for the remainder of the medieval period.

Late medieval economic recovery (1350–1509)

Mining generally performed well at the end of the medieval period, helped by buoyant demand for manufactured and luxury goods. Cornish tin production plunged during the Black Death itself, leading to a doubling of prices. Tin exports also collapsed catastrophically, but picked up again over the next few years. By the turn of the 16th century, the available

tin deposits in Cornwall and Devon had begun to decline, leading to the commencement of bell and surface mining to support the tin boom that occurred in the late 15th century.Bailey, p.55. Lead mining increased, with output almost doubling between 1300 and 1500. Wood and charcoal became cheaper once again after the Black Death, and coal production declined as a result, remaining depressed for the rest of the period - nonetheless, some coal production was occurring in all the major English coalfields by the 16th century.Bailey, p.54. Iron production continued to increase; the

in the South-East began to make increased use of water-power, and overtook the

in the 15th century as England's main iron-producing region. The first

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure. In a ...

in England, a major technical step forward in metal smelting, was created in 1496 in Newbridge in the Weald.Geddes, p.174.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* Aberth, John. (2001)
From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages.
' London: Routledge. . * Anderson, Michael. (ed) (1996)
British Population History: From the Black Death to the Present Day
'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * Barnes, Carl F. (2005) "A Note on Villard de Honnecourt and Metal," in Bork (ed) 2005. * Bailey, Mark. (1996) "Population and Economic Resources," in Given-Wilson (ed) 1996. * Bayley, J. (2009) "Medieval Precious Metal Refining: Archaeology and Contemporary Texts Compared," in Martinon-Torres and Rehren (eds) 2009. * Blair, John and Nigel Ramsay. (eds) (2001)
English Medieval Industries: Craftsmen, Techniques, Products
'' London: Hambledon Press. . * Blanchard, Ian. (2002) "Lothian and Beyond: the Economy of the "English Empire" of David I," in Britnell and Hatcher (eds) 2002. * Bork, Robert Odell. (ed) (2005)
De Re Metallica: The Uses of Metal in the Middle Ages
'' Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. . * Britnell, Richard and John Hatcher (eds). (2002) ''Progress and Problems in Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Edward Miller.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . * Cantor, Leonard (ed). (1982) ''The English Medieval Landscape.'' London: Croom Helm. . * Cantor, Leonard. (1982a) "Introduction: the English Medieval Landscape," in Cantor (ed) 1982. * Dyer, Christopher. (2009)
Making a Living in the Middle Ages: The People of Britain, 850 - 1520
'' London: Yale University Press. . * Fryde, E. B. and Natalie Fryde. (1991) "Peasant Rebellion and Peasant Discontents," in Miller (ed) 1991. * Geddes, Jane. (2001) "Iron," in Blair and Ramsay (eds) 2001. * Given-Wilson, Chris (ed). (1996) ''An Illustrated History of Late Medieval England.'' Manchester: Manchester University Press. . * Hatcher, John. (1996) "Plague, Population and the English Economy," in Anderson (ed) 1996. * Hodgett, Gerald. (2006) ''A Social and Economic History of Medieval Europe.'' Abingdon, UK: Routledge. . * Homer, Ronald F. (2010) "Tin, Lead and Pewter," in Blair and Ramsay (eds) 2001. * Jordan, William Chester. (1997)
The Great Famine: Northern Europe in the Early Fourteenth Century
'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. . * Miller, Edward. (ed) (1991)
The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Volume III: 1348-1500
'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. . {{Middle Ages + Mineral economics