The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-28
FOREIGN TRADE RECORD.

1 The serious complaints of coal ! shortage in Great Britain coupled | with the proposition just presented in l Parliament for an investigation by l commission to be created by the King 1 lends interest to figures compiled by | The National City Bank of New York l regarding worlds coal production in | the last half century and relative l share of Great Britain and the United States therein. The figures show that l the coal output of Great Britain grew ! from 124,0O0,O0O short tons in 1870 to approximately 255,O00,00O in 1918, | while the output of the mines of the l United States grew from 33,000,000 l tons in 1870 to 6O5, 100000 tons in 1918. The British output in 1918
 was double that of 1870. The United l States output in 1918 was 23 times as
 much as in 1870. In all parts of the world aside from Great Britain and | the United States, the output grew i from 8O,OOO,0O0 in 1870 to 5OO,OOO,OOO tons 1r 1918 or about six times as much in 1918 as in 1870.
 The United States, according to the l banks figures, produced about 14 per | cent. of the worlds output of coal in l 1870; 20 per cent. in 1880; 2S per 1 cent. in 1890; 32 per cent. in 1900; 1 39 per cent. in 1910; AS per cent. in | 1918. Curiously, however, the United | States. although turning . out ? F 1 times as much coal as Great Britain, l has not been until very recently an | exporter, in any considerable sense, l of coal. Our exportation of coal had never reached as many as 20,000,000 l tons prior to 1913, and even in the 1 highest war record of exports onEy 1 reached 26,000,O00 tons in the fiscal year 1918, the highest record ever i attained. On the other hand, Great Britain's exportation of coal was in
 1913, 72,0OO,OoO tons, or nearly four
 times as much as that of the United | States in that year, in 1910, 62,000,- 900 tons against 13,0OO,0OO tons ex- ported by the United States. British ships. securing the world for food and manufacturing materials and carrying only manufactures on their 1 outward voyage needed ballast, and 1 thus Great Britain became the worlds great coal purveyor, especi- ally in view of the fact that the
 United States, a much greater pro-
 ducer of coal, had few ships of her own to send over the ocean, and the
 value of her exports and manufac-
 lures was about one-quarter of that
 of Great Britain.
 Growth in production in very re- cent years has been much more rapid
 in the United States than in Great Britain, or Germany, CT in fact any
 other part of the world. Our own production of coal according to the
 banks statement grew from 27O,: , 900, 1000 tons in 1900 to 85,0O0,00 in
 1918, while that of Great Britain was
 1QOO oOn OOO and in 255 = | O0,OOO, and that of Germany 165,-
 100000 in 1900 and 260,0OO,000 in
 1915, the latest year for which fig
 ures are available. In the remainder of the world the output in 1900 was
 only 16O,OO0,000 tons and in 1913, 23O, O,0OO,O00.
 The possibility of the United States [ becoming a large exporter of coal and perhaps the worlds chief coal pur- veyor looks comparatively easy when
 we compare the relative supply of
 coal in the various sections of the globe. The worlds total available stock of coal according to the banks statement is 1897, ,553, 100000 tons of which the United States has 3,S3S,- 657,ooO,00O or 52 per cent. of the worlds total. Canada ranks next to 5 the United States with 1.234,26O, 000,- | P00O tons; China, 95,587,00 ,000; , Germany as it existed in 1913, 423,- 356,000,O0O and Great Britain 189,- 3 533,O0O,000; these figures being sup 5 piled by the Geological Congress held B at Toronto in 1913.
 , As to the sections of the United l States in which our 3,S38, 900, 900
 tons exist, the Geological Survey fig
 ures accredits North Dakota with , 697,921.200 short tons, Wyoming