The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-11-26
TIE NERVE OF ENGLISH COMMERCE

much Significance to the apparently com
moDplace fact that the British coal mine
are accustomed to despatch certain Dor
tion of their products to foreign countries
Accordingly, when the Parliamentary com
mission, in 1871, assigned definite an,
somewhat narrow bounds to the m;nera
resources of Great Britain, q cry went n,
that the export of Goals must be prohi to,
as measure of reasonable precautiou
During the panic which convulsed tn
English coal market from 1872 to 1874,
restrictive policy was still more vehement
~ urged upon the Government, which hap
PLY withstood the clamor of the alarmists
lt is now known that a decisive step in tina
| direction would have seriously crippled
British commerce.. This has been demon
strated by an exhaustive study of the Goa
I question undertaken by NJ. de Ruolz at the
! request of the French Minister of Com
merce, aud the results of his inquiry have
special interest for this country, which is
already one of tt foremost producers
and must soon become an exporter of coal
The amount of coal annually exported
by England is not less than twelve mil
lions of tons, or oue-tenth of her entire
production. 1t is forwarded to more than
eight hundred foreign ports situated in all
quarters of the globe. On a colored chart
displ yed at the Vienna Exposition, the
currents of this important traffic were de
picted, radiatiug from Great Britain
throughout the waters of Europe and Asia.
from the Baltic and the German ocean to
the Indian and Chinese seas. In the hands
of its enterprising distributors the mineral
becomes lucrative object of exchange.
The gross receipts in 1873 from the sale of
English coals-to- foreign customers ex-
ceeded ninety millions of dollars, of which
a largo share accrued to middlemen and
carriers, the value of the staple rapidly
augmenting with the distance from the
place of production. Thsfton of coal which
on the dump at Newcastle may be worth
only two dollars and half, brings twice
ae much at Bordeaux, while in Genoa it
will command seven dollars, at Madras
ten, and at Shanghai sixteen. 1t follows
and here We partly discern the bearing of
this traffic on the development of British
commerce with remote countries-thst
vessels may accept q cargo of coal on the
same footing as ordinary commercial freight.
that Is, simply in view of the profit result
ing from it's sale in q foreign market. Not
only is such a cargo readily secured, easily
and disposed of without dIficuIty.
but it ls in fact a substitute, not for prof.
table freight of other kinds, but for mere
ballast with which ships sailing under other
European flags must for the most part con-
tent themselves in the outward voyage to
the Indies.
From twenty to eighty cents ton must
be paid for ordinary ballast according to
the port of clearance, without counting the |
expense of heaViDg it out at the port of ar
rival. Coal, of course, costs more than |
ibis, but it may be sold again, and the op-
'ration is summed up with a profit. What |
the consequence of this exceptional ad-
zantage hitherto monopolized by the
english shipperf Loaded with coal in
leu of ofhallast, the British vessel can afford
o transport at a low rate those prints,
uslins, and other light fabrics with which
he mills of Manchester food the world.
accordingly the freight charges on English
oods are found to be trivial in all those
orts which consume considerable ouanti-
les OF English coal, and thua it is that this
reclous mineral has unlocked to British
ldustry many markets otherwise inacces.
IDLE, and may be- said to offer q kind of
remium on expectation. Moreover, the
Il Institution of a profitable cargo for bal
ast on the outward trip enables tie British
to lower her charges for the
eturn voyage. Thus on bLmeward
purse from Bombay or Calcutta she could
ccept freight at twelve dollars tou, i
aving already, thanks to coal, earned ten, {
nile another vessel going out in ballast I
S,Id quo Dc constrained TO ask twenty two
oilars' Under these circumstances it is (
ear 6hat coal may be called, in a literal {
lo special sense, one of the nerves of T
ngland's commerce.,
Ihe stimulating effect of her coal exports / q
bon England's commerce is well under t
Q with her in the markets of the East. A d
en sense of the comparative disability q
der which French shippers labor has v
ompted strenuous endeavor to augment e.
9 yield of the French mines, and the pro- b
leCy OF engaging at once in expectation b.
8 been urged without regard to the fact
at the coal production of France still I'll
ls short of her home demand at least 80 T
r cent. The truth is, that Belgium alone st
the Continental States has coal to epare, oi
d most of her surplus is absorbed BY her RI
ench neighbor. On the other hand, the OF
lited States, if the increase in the deli b.
ry of her mines should maintain it's nor pC
il rate of progression, will be in a posi- ch
n at the close OF another decade to ex- ed
rt large quantities of this mineral, T
ereas the excess of the English product ez
er consumption is expected to gradually an
crease. Here, probably, we have na
mse of those natural forces which are M
'paring the transfer back to this country it
that maritime prepoDderance which of
eat Britain has maintained since our civil tel
r.