The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-23 00:00:00

originally, should be carefully contrasted previously to any put.
elta,es being made in it. There are sufficient sources for the
employment of spate capital at home, with equal advantage to
the borrower and the lender, witlit.ut risking it abroad.
The bonds of the insolvent States are thus quoted :—Buenos
Ayres, 261/2 27 ; Colombian, 26!4 ; Peruvian, 181 , Portu-
guese Five per ('cuts. 37ti 37►,4 ; the Three Der Costs., ;
Spanish Active, 24,;, and the Three. per Cent. Stock, 241, 24i

NEW TAX ON COALS EXPORTED.
We have received the following Statement of the
effects that will be produced on the English Coal
Trade by the propOsed Tax of 4s. per ton on Coals
exported"; and Reasons for opposing the same :
The several statements recently submitted to the
public have clearly demonstrated that the, export
trade in coal is one of very recent growth, and
that its rapid extension since 1834 has been
owing to the repeal of the previously existing duties.
The proprietors of those collieries whose coal is chiefly
exported, seeing the demand that has thllow ed, have,
under the fancied protection of the law of 1834, ex-
pended a large capital in opening out their collieries.
An entirely new coal district has been recently called
into existence, and a public harbour lately constructed
at Warkworth, in Northumberland, at the expense of
the owners of colliery-works which • would never
have been undertaken but under the sanction of the
law
.of 1834. If the effect of this proposed measure
was such that the tax could be realized to the reve-
nue, the coal owners would have no right to
complain ; but it must he conceded, when all
the facts are fairly stated, that the real effect
•of this tax would be, not only to disappoint
the expectations of the revenue, but destroy this
important and increasing industry at the same time.
This assumption will not only be lunply demonstrated
by reference to the state of the export trade in coal,
before and after the repeal of duty in 1834, but a glance
at the history of the coal trade in other countries, un-
der the existence or the absence of import duties, will
still more clearly demonstrate it. It should be recol;
lected that England is not the only country from which
the continent of Europe can draw a supply of coal, Eng •
land has the advantage over other countries, inasmuch as
a great part of her coal lies to seaboard. Nothwith-
standing this, the greatest rivalry now prevails in
,foreign markets between the English and Belgian
coal, besides which there is the great basin of Saar-
bruck, in Rhenish Prussia, from whence a large
supply is now drawn, both by France and Germans-,
Again, both in Belgium
,and• Rhenish Prussia, cogs
a
are brought to bank at cost equally moderate with
that of England, and the proposed tax will more than
compensate those collieries for the single advan-
tage posseszed •by England in her seaboard.
It appears from parliamentary returns that the
quantity of coal exported in the year 1840 amounted
to 1,606,313 tons ; of this quantity one-fourth Part,
or 394,9,54 tons, was shipped to France alone, 'while
in 1828 the total quantity exported fromA;ngland,
including the colonies, did not exceed 355,800 tons.
A reference to the fitets connected with the past
progress of the French coal trade, as influenced by
import and discriminating duties, will fully con-
firm the opinion that any, the slightest, tax on
coals exported will cut off at once one4ourth of
our entire exports, independent of similar resift;
which may be expected in regard to other countries.
In 1788, before the French Revolution, English coals
were admitted into France on payment of an import
duty of 6s. I ld. per ton, while Belgian coal was sub-
jected to a duty of 10s. Id. per ton. The quantity of
English and Belgian coal admitted in 1788 was,
English Coal 184,773 Tons.
Belgian Coal 51,819„ „
After the peace in 1814, and on the opening of the
Canal of Conde, the French Government, with a view
to exclude English coal, and fnour those of Bel-
gium, placed an import duty of 13s. 9d. on the one,
and 2s. 9d. on the other, which discrimination con-
tinued up to the year 1834. During this period, the
twenty years' average annual imports of English coal
into France did not exceed 30,000 tons; while the
quantity of Belgian coal which entered France had
increased from 90,000 tons in 1813 to 620,176 tons
in 1834.

In 1834, simultaneously with the abolition of the
export duty in England, the French import duties
were re-modelled, and the following table will show
with what rapidity the English coal trade has
developed itself in France when freed on the one
hand from a tax on exportation, and on the other by
the equalisation of import duties.
Quantities of Coal, omitting fractions, imported into
France from Foreign countries, from 1834 to
1840.

English tons. Belgian tons. •Saarbruck tons.
1834
1835 ...... 98,0(10 615,100
1836
1837
*lB3B ..... 304,600
1839
1840 394,900 ..... No return..... No return.
Add to tons 15 lb. to equalise the quintal metre to Eng-
lish weight.
By the foregoing statement it will be seen what are
the consequences likely to result to English enterprise
under the proposed coal tax. Under the influence of
the same state of things as is now sought to be re-esta-
blished, the Belgian French coal trade increased from
90,000 tons in 181:1, to 620,100 tons in 1834; and ulti-
mately to 740,800 tons in 1839, while the Eng-
lish French coal trade, which was in 1788, 184,000
tons, did not average after the peace, from 1814
to 1834, more than 30,000 tons annually, but since
1834, under a new modification of duties on both
sides, has increased front 48,000 tons in 1834, to
395,000 tons in
.1840. To this may be added the
development of the French Coal basins under the ex-
clusive systems that were in vogue from 1814 to 1834,
the total produce of French Coal Mines being; in
1788
1814
1839 ... ...3,133,200 „
It is evident that the proposed tax will give an in-
creased stimulus to the working of coal mines in
France itself, and which exists in no less than fifty-
six departments. And further, it will be found that,
without offering any equivalent to the revenue, it is
calculated to ruin our foreign export coal trade, and
seriously affect the multifarious employments and
capital connected therewith.