The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-03-08 00:00:00

THE PRICE OF COAL

As many of our readers probalily read Mr. John
previous letter,, they will be interested by the
following letter from that gentleman, which has been
also sent ta The Tl,us for publication :

in commenting on the letter from me which you were good
enough to publish last Saturday, you questioned my asser-
tion that the heaviest part of the burden on householders
in London arising out of the late rise in the price of coal hes
been doe to combination among the coal-dealers. Several
letters from persons connected with the trade have since
been directed to :onfute that statement.

I avoided In my letter the use of the term Coal Ring, and
I sought to convey no Imputation beyond what my words
express; but my assertion was not mere wild conjecture, and
I beg permission to show the grounds on which I went.

It ii mposslble for a man not connected with the trade to
get at all the facts, and I In not pretend to have done no.
but, although it Is quite true that the profits are now touch
reduced, I think I can show that they have been quite great
enough to juatify my words.

_
TO disprove my asserti in as to prollts already oculist
and to show the reasonableness of charges ranging from 405.
to 504 a ton dining the last four weeks, one corespondent
tells you that he has had notice that the future selling price
of Pease's best screened coals, delivered free on board at
Middleshoroush, is fixed at 2.51. per joil from and after the
20th of March next. I mint meniTon that when a coal
merchant buys coals the ton means 21 owl., but when he
tells that measure resumes the ordinary dimensions of 20

Again, the very respectable firm of Messrs Cockerelt
wishing to prove that the talk about profits Is " pure non-
sense," affirm that during the last fortnight the price of the
boot Wallsend coals has varied from Vs. to 321., and that the
best South Yorkshire now cost :Ms. a ton. Mr. klundella's
committee will, perhaps, tell us hereafter how mhch of the
c oil consumed In London has cost the dealers 30s. a ton but
lu the meantime I offer you • few facts and leave you to
Iran your own conclusions.

Taktng the prices from the advertisement. In your
columns, I find that dating the put months of December
and January the average cost of the best coal to the London
consumer was 355. td per ton. As nearly as I can ascertain
the average price at the pit's month of the same coal during
the lame period was not more than Its per 21 cwt , or
15e. Si per °Mir ary Con. Add to this 95. ad, per ton for carriage
to London and due. (Messrs. Cockerell4 own estimate), and
you have an average of 245. 7d. for the cost of the beat coals
to the London denier. Allow what you please for cartage
and salaries out of the difference of ifs. Id per ton between
the buying and selling price, and consider what a margin of
profit is left in a rtrlctly ready-money business where there
are not, or hould not be, any bad debts.
Nor la Me by any means the strongest part of the case
The consumption of inferior qualities of coal has very much
Increafed in London during the present season, and of there,
as one of your correspondents admits, the proportion of prat
is very much greater.

Taking a mean between several estimates I reckon the
consumption of household ceml,in fontion during December
and January at not lees than 1,000,000 tons. Leaving out of
account the additiona/ heavy profit levied by the retell
traders from the poor wl,o purchase me or two lacks at a
time, I count the gross profits of the London coal merchants
for those two n oaths at ab mit £600,000. My conclusion Is
that hy co-operai ion we might in that short time have saved
nearly half a million of money, equivalent to a rate of ed. In
the pound on this metropolis.
The existence of combination among the coal merchants to
regulate prices must be obvious to any one who will go
through the advertisements of the past season. It can
scarcely be maintained that it won by more occident which
the leading flrms all simultaneously raised their price.
on the same mornings, until theadth of February when, with
marvellous unanimity, they made the great bound from
tot to 485.

it has been suggested that the great increase In price was
a measure nece,sary to protect the storks from exhaustion.
I believe that. few facts may be produced which teem t,
bear out that inference ; hut extended inquiry among coal-
owners and railway manager. will show it to be a fallacy.
lhere was no period ouring,the winter when abundant sup-
plies of good coal were not to he had at mice. comparatively
high, but not extravagant. Railway carriage was always
available to bear the supplies to London, but the wharves
for discharging the waggons are monopolized by the coal
merchants, awl the consumer waahelples.s.
If the Committee of the House of Commons will only make
a searchiPg Inquiry, we ought to be able to secuse our-
selves not, indeed, against high prices, but against a re-
currence of such grievous inconvenience SS we have lately
suffered.

As far ns I can ascertain, the real rise In price—that of the
commodity at the place of production—hat been partly due
te natural calves, already welhknown, and partly to • natural
effort of the coalowners to share in the great pronto w hien were
being made before their/yea. The the in price of coal at
the collieries hen, to a gheat estent, foUowed, and not pre-
ceded, the the in the London market.

"CAUSE AND EFFECT r'

In connection with this subjeet the following letters
have also been sent to The Times for publication :
I think it may without question be conceded that necessity
Often leads to good by the discovery of " cause and effect."
The consumption of coal at these works Is nearly 2,000 tons
per week, or about 100,000 tons per annum, and within a
comparatively short period the advancebt the pit's mouth
of the deroription of fuel I consume has, on the average of
my entire consumption, exceeded SOO per cent, and, what
is more. • large proportion of these works have for Nome
time been Mending for Nei. Salt, to point of tonnage
is, next to coal and iron, the largest production of the United
Kingdom : the export alone of Manufactured salt hoe ex-
ceeded 1,000,000 tons per annum. The same principle ap-
lies to manufactured articles a• to railway traffic. Quantity
Is • most important element of lace...; and, as a rule, small
profits and quick returns is a sound maxim. The export of
salt is rapidly falling off. Without coal at moderate prices,
salt. like Iron most remain comparatively uselesa in the
bowels of the earth.
Now. as to the sense, I can in some measure confirm the
opinion expressed In Via Times of the 22n4 hist ,
" Panic." Owing to reposkd "strike." the demand ham

_
exceeded by. small pernentage the production : orders have
In a measure been in excess, and under the Impression that
coals would be higher there has been a general rush,
analogous in a degree to a paid'" in the Money Market.
The coal mines at present in operation. are undoubtedly,
capable of producing a impply much exceeding the present
demand, provided we could avoid strikes and disputes
between muter, and men; besides, new coal mines are
rapidly opening up, but unfortunately, the higher the wages
the less the production. That erroneous doctrine Manned
Into the minds of the men—via, that the lees they produce
the higher the prices and wages, U persisted in, must
eventually prove fatal to the export trade of this country.
I am one of those who have ever contended that the
honest working man is entitled to participate in the pros-
perity of the trade or calling in which he la engaged. andoU
he does not understand sound principles of political economy
iii. his misfortune rather than his fault. I believe that
sound lectures from time to time on political economy i 0
working men, in plain, simple language, illustrated by
examples mid facts, do much to enlighten their :lauds, pre-
vent strikes, and establish sympathy, conddence, and good ,
I feeling between master and men, a scheme I have in contem. •
• plation in the lecture-room of my own works and in the I
nelghbourhood.—l have the honour to be, dre..
JOHN CORBETT.

Stoke Works, Worcestershire, Feb. 28.
The uninitiated public are much perplexed by the conflict
tog statements which appear In the newspapers u to the ex-
istence of a combination of coal dealers for the purpose of
keeping up the price of coal, to their own great profit. On
the one hand, when coals were at their highest it appeared
imposaible to add up the figures which represeuted the
cost of coal at the pit's mouth and the carriage to London
so as to show • smaller profit to the coal merchmt In
London than twenty shillings or thereabouts per ton.
dio the other hand, an occasional letter appears in your
columns from an indignant coal merchant, In which the
writer declares that he buys his coals at a coat of only a few
shillings per ton below the price at which he sells theta
There. a general Impression abroad that a coal ring exists,
and that, to use the language of one of your correspondents,
it deserves agposure as one 61 the greatest swindles of till
day. I belliPe this impression is based on a very substanUa
foundation of fact. But it is quite posaible that a large
number of coal merchants are not only unable to participate
in the profits of this coal ring, but are actual sufferers from
It. The following facts msy,serre to show how a monopoly
has been created lathe coal trade by the unjustifiable conni-
vance of the railway companies, without whose aid the
monopoly could not exist foes single day.
I have before me an official letter from the Goods Demi-
ment of the London and North-Western Railway, in ouster
to jay inquiry, °gel ing to bring up firewood in trucks, from
Atherstone, in Warwicluhire, to Chalk Farm Station at the
rate of 185. per ton. But when 1 .n.inire as to the rate
for a truck load of coals from Atherstin, to London, I am
informed that the company will not bring it at all for me or
for any one who is oot "a registered trader."
The meaning of this is that the company will fulfil their
obligations to me as one of the pubic by carrying to this
station • truck-load of firewood, bricks, lime, stone, or, in
fact, any other kind of merchaediee, except coal. But, as
regards coal, it is evident that the company have entered
into a compact with a ring of coal merchants, whom they
designate "registered traders." The effect of this compact
is that no one can have coal conveyed to London by railway
emept a taw large traders in that commodity, who compel all
small traders and the public generally to purchase coals from
them at their exorbitant prices, or not at sit
If Parliament does not interfere to put an end to this
monopoly by compelling the railway companies to bring
coals to London, as they do other good., for all Persons
there 11 no reason why • ring should not be formed bra
similar purpose in all other trader..

The " registered traders" in tlah might thus take posses-
sion of our lines from the sea coast, and even milk and
butchers meat, now largelywonveyed by railway, might fall
Into the hands of stew monopolists.
I may add, as a lawyer, that I have looked into the Acts
affecting railway traffic, and can find no existing enactment
under which a railway cempeny can be compelled to con-
vey coals under conditions which will be of practical use to
the public. It is therefore Important that some Act should
be passed this Session for remedying the helpless position of
those who, like myself, have the opportunity of buying coal
at a moderate price, but who are deprived of facilities for
conveying it to the nearest railway station.—l am, Au,
London, Feb. 29. N.