In the time before Christ, and afterwards, tin was a very precious metal because it was needed to make bronze, including bronze weapons that were highly sought after because of their rust resistance, strength and sharpness.
The Romans loved to use tin and bronze but they ran out of tin very quickly. The mines in Sardinia and Tuscany were exhausted. This made the tin deposits in what is now Cornwall, England extremely valuable to them.
{{image2-a:r-w:200}}According to tradition, a man called Joseph of Arimathea owned several tin mines in Cornwall and shipped the raw tin to the Romans. If it has been awhile since you went to Sunday school, that is the same Joseph of Arimathea who asked Pontius Pilate for Christ’s body after Christ was crucified. Joseph then buried Jesus in his own tomb.
Little is known about Joseph except that he was rich, he was a follower of Christ, and he had the nerve to ask for Christ’s body. After all, if Christ?s disciples were hiding for fear of being jailed or crucified, why was Joseph willing to admit he was a disciple of Jesus, and prepared to go to Pilate to ask for the body?
Maybe it was because Joseph controlled one of the most important metals in the Roman Empire. Pilate wasn’t stupid, so he handed over the body.
It is speculated that Joseph left Jerusalem a few years after Christ’s death and returned to his mine holdings in Cornwall in 37 AD, where he founded the first church at Glastonbury. Whatever the truth, when the Romans conquered Cornwall (from 43 AD onwards) in order to control its tin mines, Christianity was already there.
The church credits Joseph with the introduction of Christianity to Britain and in the Catholic Church he is the patron saint of tin miners.
Source: Miners News