It's no surprise that the locals looked on tin miners as a Mafia who used their positions to extort money from others. He was a King's worker, and thus free from all previous obligations. And at a time when peasants were classed as serfs, slaves in a feudal society, who must remain with the land, while a man who escaped to a city and remained free for a year and a day could win his freedom, a serf who made it to the moors, who took up a shovel and axe and declared himself a miner, was instantly free. If their extensive workings required plentiful supplies of water to wash away the soil, they could divert any water courses they wanted. They could dig anywhere where they thought there could be tin under the surface. He made a fortune from the mines, and gave miners extensive rights and benefits. In the medieval period, the King owned all tin-mining on Dartmoor. While hunting around for themes for a new story, I hit upon the idea of making use of the Stannaries.
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