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it was then reduced to 6s., and in 1831 was wholly repealed.

Although the government has remedied the evil so far as the public revenue is concerned, the consumer is still burthened in some places with local or municipal duties, &c. Thus in the city of London the corporation was empowered, by the acts 10 Geo. IV. c. 136, and 11 Geo. IV. c. 64, to levy eight pence per ton "for providing for the payment of the interest and ultimate liquidation of monies borrowed for making the approaches to London Bridge." The produce of this tax, which in 1842 was 89,642l., is mortgaged for the cost of rebuilding London Bridge and approaches. One penny per ton is levied under the act 47 Geo. III. for establishing a market for the sale of coals. This tax realized 11,5217. in 1842. It has been said that the means of establishing the Coal Market might have been provided without difficulty by a more economical management of some of the City departments; but it was an easier task to apply for an act of parliament to levy an additional tax. Under the act 1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 76, four pence per ton is levied "for metage by prescription and charters," making together 1s. 1d. per ton upon all coals brought coastwise to the port of London.

1830, the year preceding its repeal, was 1,021,8621.

A very peculiar regulation has been established by the coal-owners of the northern coal-field, called the "limitation of the vend." It is important that the consumers of coal should understand the nature and effects of this restriction; and the following account of it, by G. R. Porter, Esq., is therefore given at some length. Mr. Porter says:-"The limitation of the vend has existed, with some partia interruptions, since the year 1771. This arrangement is no less than a systematic combination among the owners of collieries having their outlets by the Tyne, the Wear, and the Tees, to raise the price to consumers by a self-imposed restriction as to the quantity supplied. A committee appointed from among the owners holds its meetings regularly in the town of Newcastle, where a very costly establishment of clerks and agents is maintained. By this committee not only is the price fixed at which coals of various qualities may be sold, when sea-borne, for consumption within the kingdom, but the quantity is assigned which, during the space of the fortnight following each order or "issue," the individual collieries may ship. Upon the opening of a new colliery, the first thing to be determined is the rank or "basis" to be assigned to it. For this purpose, one referee is ap pointed by the owners of the colliery, and another by the coal-trade committee, who, taking into view the extent of royalty or coal-field secured, the size of the pits, the number and power of steam-engines erected, the number of cottages built for workmen, and the general scale of the establishment, fix therefrom the proportionate quantity the colliery shall be permitted to furnish towards the general supply, which the directing committee shall from time to time authorise to be issued. The point to be attained by the owners of the colliery is to secure for their esta

By letters patent granted by Charles II., the Duke of Richmond was entitled to receive 1s. per chaldron, Newcastle measure, on all coals shipped in the river Tyne to be consumed in England; and on the average of ten years ending 1799, the amount of that duty had been 21,000l. a year. On the 19th of August, 1799, the Treasury agreed with the duke for the purchase of this duty by an annuity of 19,000l., which sum was charged upon the consolidated fund, to be paid quarterly. The sum issued by the Exchequer at three several periods for the purchase of a perpetual annuity of 19,000l. for the duke was 490,833l.; but the sums received by the Custom House, as the repre-blishment the largest basis possible; and sentative of the Duke of Richmond, from August, 1799, up to March, 1831, when all coasting duties ceased, exceeded the payments made from the Exchequer by 315,000l. The total revenue derived from the coasting duties on coals in

with this view it is common to secure a royalty extending over from five to ten times the surface which it is intended to work. thus burthening themselves with the payment of possibly 5000l. per annum, or more, of "dead rent," to the

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owner of the soil, who, of course, exacts such payment in return for his concession, although his tenants may have no intention of using it. Instead of sinking one or two pits, which would afford ample facility for working the quantity which the mine is destined to yield, a third and possibly a fourth pit are sunk, at an enormous expense, and without the smallest intention of their being used. A like wasteful expenditure is made for the erection of useless steam-power; and to complete and give an appearance of consistency to the arrangements, instead of building 200 cottages for the workmen, | double that number are provided. In this manner a capital of 160,000l. to 200,000l. may be invested for setting in motion a colliery, which will be allowed to raise and sell only such a quantity of coals as might be produced by means of an outlay of one-fourth or one-fifth of that amount. By this wasteful course the end of the colliery owners is attained: they get their basis fixed, if it is a large concern, as is here supposed, say at 50,000, and this basis will probably secure for them a sale of 25,000 chaldrons during the year, instead of 100,000 chaldrons, which their extended arrangements would allow them to raise. The Newcastle committee meet once a fortnight, or twenty-six times in the year, and, according to the price in the London market, determine the quantity that may be issued during the following fortnight. If the London price is what is considered high, the issue is increased; and if low, it is diminished. If the "issue" is twenty on the 1000, the colliery here described would be allowed to sell (20 × 50) 1000 chaldrons during the ensuing fortnight. The pit and the establishment may be equal to the supply of 3000 or 4000 chaldrons; orders may be on the books to that extent, or more; ships may be waiting to receive the largest quantity; but, under the regulation of the "vend," not one bushel beyond the 1000 chaldrons may be shipped until a new issue shall be made. By this system the price is kept up; and, as regards the colliery owners, they think it more for their advantage to sell 25,000 chaldrons at 30s. per chaldron than to sell 100,000 chaldrons at the

price which a free competition would bring about. They may be right in this calculation; but if, under the system of restriction, any undue profit is obtained, nothing can be more certain than that competition for a portion of this undue profit will cause the opening of new collieries until the advantage shall be neutralized, and this result of the system is already fast approaching. Every new colliery admitted into the "vend" takes its share in the "issues," and, to some extent, limits the sales of all the rest. The disadvantage during all this time to the public at large is incontestable. . The owners of collieries, being restricted in their fortnightly issues to quantities which their establishment enables them to raise in three or four days, are naturally desirous of finding for their men during the remainder of the time some employment which shall lessen the expense of maintaining them in idleness, and spread over a larger quantity of product the fixed expenses of their establishments and their dead rents. To this end coals are raised which must find a sale in foreign countries; and it practically results that the same quality of coals which, if shipped to London, are charged at 30s. 6d. per Newcastle chaldron, are sold to foreigners at 18s. for that quantity, giving a preference to the foreign buyer of 40 per cent. in the cost of English coal. By this means the finest kinds of coal, which in London cost the consumer about 30s. per ton, may be had in the distant markets of St. Petersburg and New York for 15s. to 16s., or little more than half the London price. Nor is this the worst effect of the system. In working a colliery a great proportion of small coal is raised. The cost to the home consumer being exaggerated, and the freight and charges being equally great upon this article as upon round coal, very little small coal finds a market within the kingdom, except on the spot where it is raised; and as the expense of raising it must be incurred, the coal-owners must of course seek elsewhere for a market at any price that will exceed the mere cost of putting it on board ship. By this means "nut-coal," which consists of small pieces, free from dust, which have passed

through a screen, the bars of which are five-eighths of an inch apart, are sold for shipment to foreign countries at the low price of 3s. per ton. The intrinsic quality of this coal is quite as good as that of the round coal from the same pits; it is equally suitable for generating steam, and for general manufacturing purposes; and thus the manufacturers of Denmark, Germany, Russia, &c. obtain the fuel they require, and without which they cannot carry on their operations, at a price not only below that paid by English manufacturers, but for much less than the cost at which it can be raised. The coalowner might, it is true, sell this small coal at home at a better price than he obtains from his foreign customer, but every ton so sold would take the place of an equal quantity of large coal, upon which his profit is made, and by such home sale he would by no means lessen his sacrifice, but the reverse." (Progress of the Nation, vol. iii. p. 98.)

Another regulation affecting the coal trade from the Tyne and the Wear has been established by act of parliament (6 Geo. IV. c. 32), under the provisions of which every ship must be loaded in her turn; and if any colliery refuse to sell, a penalty is imposed of 1007.; but this regulation may be and has been evaded by the coal-owners towards ships the owners of which refuse to be bound by their regulations in the port of discharge; and the mode of evading it is to fix an exorbitant price upon their coal, which may be done although a price below the regulation is not allowed, and by this means the vessels are either brought into conformity with the regulations in the port of discharge, or forced out of the trade. The regulations here alluded to were made in June, 1834, at a meeting of the coal-factors in Loudon, and are to this effect:-"That whenever a greater number than eighty ships reach market on any one day, the factors shall offer them for sale according to the rotation of entry; and that not more than forty of such ships shall be offered for sale on one marketday, unless the prices of best coals be 20s. or upwards, and in that case to be at liberty to sell such further number of ships as each factor may think proper,

giving to every vessel with the same coals her fair and regular turn of sale, by which arrangements the ships will experience little or no detention, and the evil be avoided of pressing for sale at a reduced price a larger quantity of coals than the average demand of the market requires." This rule was altered as follows in Jannary. 1835, as far as regards the number of ships the cargoes of which may be offered for sale in one market-day :

"When the price of the best Sunderland coals has been on the previous marketday 21s. or less, the number of cargoes to be offered for sale shall be 40 When 21s. 3d. or 21s. 6d. . 50

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Some alteration has since been made in this scale, but the principle is fully acted upon. Vessels loaded with coal for gas companies begin to work upon arrival, and also all vessels whose cargoes are for the use of the government.

In May, 1844, the harbour-master of the port of London presented a return to the lord mayor, which shows the operation of the regulations established by the coal-owners in the port of London for keeping up the price of coal. On the 1st of May there were 260 vessels laden with coal, detained in sections waiting their "turn" of sale. On one day in the same month, ten colliers had been detained, with their captains and crews, for fortysix days, and two had been detained above fifty days. On the 27th of May, 109 coal-laden ships were detained in sections, and the price of the best coal had advanced to 24s. and 25s. per ton, or about 34s. per ton to the consumer. “A saving of every shilling per ton on the average consumption of the metropolis is equiva lent to an annual saving to its inhabitants of 150,000l." (Railway Report of Board of Trade, 28th Feb., 1845) During the winter of 1844-5, the price of coal in Londou has been as high as 40s. a ton. If the "limitation of the vend" and other restrictions on the coal trade were abolished, and there was no detention and waste of time either at the port of shipment or in London, it is believed that the best coal could be brought from Sunderland into the port of London at 15s. per ton, and

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that 7s. per ton at the pit would be as remunerating to concerns working to their full power as 11s. with their powers limited by the vend regulations; and that a freight of six shillings per ton would be as profitable as the higher freight now paid, part of which is to cover the expense of detention.

The railways now in progress will no doubt in time have an important and most beneficial effect in reducing the price of coal in those parts of the country where it is at present so high as almost to place it beyond the reach of the poorest classes of the population. Soon after the Great North of England Railway, from Darlington to York, was opened, the price of coal at York fell to the extent of from 5s. to 10s. per ton. probably soon be a large increase in the supply of inland coal in London, as more than one of the great railway companies whose lines extend from London to the midland coal-fields have agreed to convey coal "at rates not exceeding 1d. per tou per mile, including toll and locomotive power." Thus the cost of conveying coal from the south of Staffordshire and Derbyshire will not exceed 10s. and 12s. a ton; and such coal may then be sold with a profit in London at 20s. per ton. Whether in time the opening of additional sources for the supply of coal will have an effect on the restrictions of the coal-owners of the north, cannot of course be as yet safely predicted.

There will also most

The statistics of the coal-trade are given for the sake of distinctness under the following heads:-1. Coasting Trade. 2. Coal Trade of the Port of London. 3. Foreign Trade.

1. Of 7,447,084 tons of coal shipped at the several ports of the United Kingdom, to other parts of the United Kingdom, in 1843, the shipments from fifteen ports exceeded 70,000 each, viz. :

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Alloa Gloucester Ayr

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Stockton

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Sunderland

877,451

Newport

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Swansea

401,893

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300,498

267,303

The quantity which arrived by iníand navigation, in 1843, was 34,684 tons.

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In addition to the above, the quantity of coal exported to British possessions in the four years from 1840 to 1843 was

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In the last of these years the Channel Islands took 80,413 tons; the British West Indies, 74,889 tons; British North America, 67,939 tons; Malta, 37,935 tons; East Indies and China, 30,087 tons.

The quantity of coal raised in France increased 2,744,590 tons from 1814 to 1841, or 412 per cent., and between 1836 and 1841 the increase was 34 per cent. The number of mines in 1841 was 256, and the quantity raised was 13,321 tons each; in 1836 the average of each mine in France was 9863 tons. Each person employed in coal-mines (29,320) raises, on an average, 116 tons a year. The quantity raised in each of the undermentioned years was as follows:

Years. 1828

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1829

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1830 1831

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244,330 359,886

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359,039

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1832

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415,247

1833

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449,655

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