THE WORLD'S COAL.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 396, 30 September 1884, Page 5

THE WORLD'S COAL.

The five principal coal producing countries 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 estent in several of the British Colonies, especially in Nova Scotia and iNew, South Wales,, but practically the world's coal supply is drawn from Great Britain, the; United States, Germany, France and Belgium. This being the easel ifc is interesting arid 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. In Great Britain, for instance, 166,200,000 tons of coal, in round figures, were raised in 1883, as compared with 158,850,000 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 93,600,000 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 Prance in 18S3 was 21,446,000 tons, while the corresponding production in 1882 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 371 ; O31,00O 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 pre-eminence in the matter of co?l production; and that her extraction is, if anything, growing more rapidly than in any of (he other coal-yielding countries; Nearly 45 per cent, of the world's coal -is raised in Great Britain 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 bear are less con* siderable 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 a festina lente 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 coal extraction of France grows in a festina lente 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 ac ; 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 femarking that the French still fail to put much energy and vigor into their coaltaming. ■■■'...• 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 fadt that the production. of coal in the ; fiv6 countries increased in the four years ending with 1883 inclusive to the extent of 85,400,000 tons. We hear of the continued dullness of" trade and the discouraging results of commercial enterprise ; but in presence ot 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 coal mining 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 coalowners 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 pro** gress of population. The 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. Henc3 it. comes about that more and more coal must be raised to feed the steam boilers of the world.