The Mint

This page is about the district in London. For other uses of "The Mint" see Mint.

The Mint was a district in Southwark in London named for King Henry VIII having set up his mint there. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the area was known for offering protection against prosecution for debtors. In 1550, the city of Southwark purchased its titles of independence from the crown and the lands of the Duke of Suffolk, but these patents excluded Suffolk Place, the liberty of the Mint, the Clink Liberty and Paris Garden. This set up a judicial and political anomaly in those areas no longer part of London, but also not officially within other jurisdictions. Prior to Henry VIII, the area was ruled by ecclesiastical and manorial powers, but after the break from Rome it was effectively without law. "The Mint" and "The Clink" were two areas in Southwark, therefore, where no laws could be enforced. Previously, Alsatia, an area of Whitefriars, had enjoyed a similar distinction under patent of James I, but it had its privileges revoked in 1697.

Each of these anomalous districts attracted its own form of law breaker, and The Mint's primary population was debtors. Those who were in danger of being thrown into debtor's prison could, if they were lucky, run to The Mint to hide. Once in The Mint, such debtors risked immediate arrest if they were found outside of it. Debt collectors (known as "duns") would stand along the main roads out of The Mint and wait for any suspected debtor. Sometimes the duns were bill collectors in the modern sense, and sometimes they were thugs who would beat and seize the debtor. Within The Mint, life was hard. Since persons there could not leave (except on Sunday, when no debts could be collected), they could not get jobs to raise money enough to pay off their debts. Those who would attempt to leave The Mint on Sunday to gather money from friends or lenders were often called "Sunday gentlemen," as they would attempt to appear prosperous to hoodwink lenders.

The Mint was hardly a debtor's holiday. Because the people there were poor, such housing and food that could be found inside the Mint was at a sub-ghetto level. Those who went to The Mint were frequently to die of malnutrition or murder before raising money enough to escape their debts. Furthermore, the Mint's geography was a factor in its poor living standard, as it was below the river's level and therefore was a breeding ground for sewage- and water-bourne maladies. Daniel Defoe describes life in The Mint for his heroine Moll Flanders in the novel of the same name.

In 1723, the Mint lost its protected status, although it remained a slum into the 19th century. By that time, its reputation as a haunt for the poorest of the poor had ensured that neither it nor The Clink had a standard of living on par with the rest of London.

In addition to Defoe's description, the Mint is referred to by most 18th century British satirists, including Alexander Pope in his Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot and, indirectly, by John Gay in Trivia. The Mint figures in the novel "The System of the World" by Neal Stephenson.

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