COAL TRADE. The vast importance of coal to the arts, manufactures, and general prosperity of Great Britain, renders the subject of the coal trade, and also the question as to the period when the exhaustion of our coal mines may be anticipated, matters of more than ordinary moment. With regard to the latter point, the investigations hitherto made as to the extent of the coal beds in all directions are too unsatisfactory to afford grounds for corning to any thing like an approximation to the truth. One thing, however, is positively certain, that for a great many centuries to come the supply of coal will be equal to the demand. Mr Taylor, an experienced coal owner, calculates the quantity consumed in Great Britain and Ireland at 15,586,000 tons annually, exclusive of foreign exportation; and this estimate does not materially differ from those of Messrs Stevenson and Bakewell. With regard to the extent of the coal fields, it is the opinion of Mr Taylor that those of Durham and Northumberland are adequate to furnish the present annual supply for more than 1700 years. Dr Buckland, the celebrated geologist, thinks this estimate much exaggerated; but he is of the same opinion with Bakewell, that in South Wales alone there are coal beds which will meet the present annual demand for 2000 years to come. When we take into account the other extensive coal mines throughout both England and Scotland, it must appear sufficiently absurd that the exportation of this valuable mineral should be cramped by heavy duties, on the ground that the mines would become soon exhausted.

From the following report of Mr Buddle, a well-informed coal engineer, it will be seen that the opinion generally entertained of the vast profits of coal mining has not been well founded. “Although many collieries, in the hands of fortunate individuals and companies, have been perhaps making more than might be deemed a reasonable and fair profit, according to their risk, like a prize in a lottery; yet as a trade, taking tlıe whole capital employed on both rivers, he should say that certainly it has not been so.” (First Report of the Committee of the House of Lords.'') On being asked “What have the coal-owners on the Tyne and Wear, in your opinion, generally made on their capital employed ?” He replied, “According to the best of my knowledge, I i should think that by no means ten per cent, has been made at simple interest, without allowing any extra interest for the redemption of capital.”

The high price of coal in the metropolis of England is not to be ascribed, as was long supposed, to the monopoly of the coal-owners on the Tyne and Wear, but to the various charges and duties which have been laid upon it in [7:7:8]passing from the hands of the owner into those of the consumer. The price of a chaldron of coals in London in 1830 amounted to L.2. 7s. 10⅜d., which charge was thus apportioned:
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lhe government duty of six shillings has been abolished since the above-mentioned period, but the other charges remain nearly the same; and it is the opinion of all who have minutely examined the subject, that there is ample room for retrenchment. The charges of those employed in the trade are in almost every case exorbitant, and they arise principally from a pernicious system of monopoly which is persevered in. The various municipal taxes also contribute largely to enhance the price of coal. For an able and minute analysis of the subject, the reader is referred to M‘Culloch’s Dictionary of Commerce, p. 274.

The sale of coal by weight instead of by measure will undoubtedly do away with some of the more flagrant abuses that have infested the trade. The facilities afforded for fraudulent dealing under the metage system were ample, and gave rise to serious loss on the part of the coal owner. It is well known that coal, if broken into pieces of even moderate bulk, measures a great deal more than when in large masses. The shippers were well aware of this fact, and insisted on the proprietors supplying them with great coal only; and thus the latter had an immense quantity of< small coal thrown on their hands, which they were compelled to burn on the spot. “I have known,” says Mr Buddle, in the report above quoted, “at one colliery as many as from ninety to a hundred chaldrons a day destroyed.” Sale by weight, however, has at last abated this monstrous system.

For a considerable period the duty on large coal exported was 17s. 6d., and on small coal 4s. 6d. per chaldron. Recently, however, a reduction has taken place in the former impost. The followingis the state of the duties levied at present (1833).

Coals not being small coals, exported to any place not a British possession, viz. in a British ship, 3s. 4d. per ton; in a foreign ship, 4s. per ton.

Small coals, culm, and cinders, exported to any place not a British possession, viz. in a British ship, 2s. per ton; in a foreign ship, 4s. per ton.

The policy of levying a heavy duty on the exportation of coal, from a dread of draining our mines, is, from the statements previously made, sufficiently absurd. A further reduction of the impost on large coal, at least, would be a source of wealth to the country, and advantage to the revenue.

The following is an account of the quantity of coals, culm, and cinders, exported from the different ports of England, Scotland, and Wales, for ten years; distinguishing those sent coastwise to Ireland, to British colonies, and to all foreign countries, and also distinguishińg the quantities sent to each.
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The following table exhibits the amount of customs revenue on coals, cinders, and culm, for ten years.
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With regard to the number of persons employed in the various branches of the coal trade, nothing certain has been ascertained; but Mr M 4 Culloch is inclined to think that the number of those directly engaged in it may be set down at from 160,000 to 180,000. For particulars regarding this estimate, and also as to the various details connected with the coal trade, see Dictionary of Commerce, article Coal.