ABSTRACT
Quite apart from its site as the commodity which served as a test case for the solution of the one of the major economic problems of the twentieth century, tin has a remarkable history. It is one that ultimately rests on two material features, the very limited geological distribution of its mineral form and the extraordinary versatility of the metal which permits the fabrication of a wide range of products. Since many of these became an integral part of the daily life of several civilizations, they made the mineral comparatively valuable. The history of the metal is therefore one of the changing ways in which that value is realized and distributed.
