ABSTRACT
Malaya was certainly an exporter in the fifteenth century, and a producer in the ninth century. Indonesia was producing tin at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Thailand’s history as a tin producer may go back 2,000 years. Cornwall has a long history as a leading producer. Production was certainly small by modern world standards, but so was world consumption until well into the nineteenth century. The decline of the Cornish industry, which was economically and socially painful for the Duchy, reflected its inability to compete with the rapidly expanding lower-cost producers in Malaya and Bolivia. The economic hazards of restarting deep underground mines in an old mining area were soon revealed. The revival of tin mining in Australia, although very modest by the standard of other metals, is one of the success stories of the last 20 years in the mining industry. Malaysia has been the largest tin producer since 1883.
