THE WORLD'S COAL.

Grey River Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 5042, 22 November 1884, Page 2

THE WORLD'S COAL.

The five principal coal-producing coun tries of the world are Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Belgium. A certain quantity of coal is also mined in Spain and Russia, and coal is also being worked to some little extent in several of the British Colonies, especially in Nova Scotia and New South Wales, but practically the world's coal supply is drawn from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Belgium. This being the case, it is interesting and important to analyse the course which production is taking in each of the five countries mentioned. The remarkable feature in the information available on the subject is that in every important coal-producing region the extraction appears to be gradually on the increase. If Great Britain, for instance, 166,200,000 tons of coal, in round figures,

were raised in 1883, as compared with 158,500,000 tons In 1882. The production, of the ■ United States is also marching on, having risen last year to 95,800,000 tons, as compared with £3, 600,000. in 1882. Germany, again/ produced 70,250,000 tons of coal last : year* as ' compared with 65,375,000 in 1882. The coal production of France in 1883 was 21,446,000 tons, whilst the corresponding production in 1883 was 20,603,000 tons. Belgium yielded 18,135,000 tons of coal in 1883 and 17,591,000 tons in 1882. Altogether the five countries produced between them 671,031,000 tons of coal in 1883 as compared with 356,020,000 tons in 1882. It will be seen that Great Britain fully maintained last year her extraordinary preeminence in the matter of coal production, and that her extraction is, if anything, growing more rapidly than in any of the other coal yielding countries. Nearly 45 per cent of the world's coal is raised in Great Britian alone -a truly marvellous result when we consider the limited area of England, Scotland, and Wales, and an astonishing illustration also of what can be effected by intelligently directed capital and labor, even when the natural resources upon which they are brought to b,ear are less considerable than those existing in more extensive and, perhaps, more highly-favored regions. Next to Great Britain, Germany appears to be increasing her coal production with the most rapidity. The extraction grows in France, but in afcstina lentc fashion, and the area of Belgium is so limited that one would imagine that the coal extraction of .that industrious little country cannot be carried much further. We have said that the caal extraction of France grows in a festina Icnte fashion ; and that this is the case is shown in 'the fact that in 1863 France raised 10,576,000 tons, while in 1873 the production had not been carried beyond 17,486,000 tons, rising languidly in 1883 to 21,446,000 tons. When we see Great Britain increasing her coal extraction at the rate of 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 tons per annum, while during the last twenty years the corresponding average progress in France has been only 500,000 tons per annum, we are justified in remarking that the French still fail to put much snergy and vigour into their coal-mining. We have shown that the aggregate production of coal in 1883 in Great Britain, the United States, Germany, France, and Belgium was 371,000,000 tons in round figures. In 1882 the corresponding production was 356,000,000 tons ; in 1881, 332,200,000 tons ; in 1880, 315,100,000 tons ; and in 1879, 285,600,000 tons. We thus arrive at the astonishing fact that the production of coal in the five countries increased in the four years ending with 1883 inclusive to the extent of 85,400,000 tons. We hear of the continued dulness of trade and the discouraging results of commercial enterprise ; but in the presence of the stupendous increase indicated in the production of coal by the figures which we have just cited, it cannot, we think, be fairly maintained that coalmining industry has been depressed during the past half decade. This remark holds good, at any rate, so far as the extraction is concerned, and the only question is whether the prices obtained have been fairly remunerative. Probably coal owners have suffered from the growth of competition which has been a distinctive feature in all trades and pursuits during the last five or ten years. The main cause of the continual growth observable in the coal extraction of the five countries is, no doubt, the steady development of steam power, and the increased domestic consumption resulting from the progress of population, she demand for household coal must have a tendency to grow as households are multiplied ; but, after all, the main explanation of the continual expansion of the world's coal trade must be found in the steady development of the world's steam power. Every day more and more steam engines are brought into operation, more and more railways are established, and more and more steamers are built. Hence it comes about that more and.more coal must be raised to feed the steam boilers of the world.