The following table gives the totals of Spanish agricultural production, to the nearest thousand of metric tons and hecto litres, for the years indicated :— Mining and Minerals.—Second to agriculture is the mineral wealth of Spain which yields millions of tons of ore, principally for export.
Iron Ore output sank over 7,500,000 tons from 1913 to 1926, although the 1926 figures are hardly comparable because during that year the smelting works in Great Britain were obliged to reduce purchases. The general cause of the decrease in iron ore output is the gradual exhaustion of the principal mines yielding the better class of ores, whilst the industry in general is somewhat hampered by high costs of production.
The output of Copper shows a steady increase, the production in 1927 being nearly double the 1913 output.
The following table shows the Spanish Coal output in metric tons for the last few years, and a comparison is made with 1913, the year preceding the outbreak of the World War : (In Thousands of Metric Tons) The figures show an extremely rapid rise in production, the apex being attained in 1926, the year of the British coal strike.
In 1924 the Railway Statute was promulgated (July 12), and the Government took advantage of this law to revert to the sub ject of the consumption of Spanish coal. The policy of subsidies was codified and regularised in October, 1925. These somewhat tentative movements culminated in February, 1926, in legislation made with the idea of supporting the Spanish coal-mining indus try, and helping it to expand still further by enforcing the use of Spanish coal up to a very high percentage of the total con sumption on the railroads and in subsidized industries. The per centage to which Spanish coal must be used in the case of rail roads running express passenger lines is 85% of the total con sumption, whilst in the case of other railroads coming under the Railroad Statute the proportion is 90%. Industries have been classified in various ways, and upon them have been imposed cer tain proportions for the use of Spanish coal, which, however, do not reach the percentages enforced upon the railroads.
The annual average imports of British coal into Spain before 1925 was something over one and a half million tons. British
exports in 1927 were very much in excess of that figure, and as a consequence of the coal stop page in Great Britain the varia tion between the 1926 and 1927 figures was extremely great, the 1926 exports being 785,00o tons, whilst the 1927 figures were 2, 361,00o tons. The agitation on the part of the Spanish coal own ers in the early part of 1928 was directly due to the very large im ports of 1927.
The output of lead ore has been affected by the drop in the price of the metal, but both miners and smelters have managed to main tain their production, and lead, on the basis of its value, occu pies the second place in ore pro duction. A Consortium of Lead Producers was created by a Royal Decree of March 9, 1928. The Consortium is composed of the Arrayanes Mine, the lead mining Syndicates of Linares-Caroline and Cartagena-Mazarron, and such other concerns engaged in the mining, smelting and working of lead as may apply for admission. It controls the purchase and sale in Spain of all the lead in bars, tubes and sheets required by the national market.
The production of copper ore and of ferro-cupreous pyrites has been steadily improving during the last three years, and the output of electrolytic copper and blister has likewise increased.
Zinc ore was produced in increased quantities in 1926, and the quantity of zinc smelted has increased. A similar movement in mercury and metallic quicksilver is also to be recorded.
The production of superphosphates is becoming more im portant in Spain, rising from 185,00o tons in 1913 to 828,00o tons in 1926. This increase in production marks the progressive rise in Spanish demand.
Hitherto the production of potassium salts in Spain has been insignificant, but in 1926 it occupied the sixth place, in so far as regards value, amongst all the minerals produced in Spain.
The Government has reserved for itself 378,335 hectares of land bearing these salts, some 93,675 having been registered by private individuals. Report states that the layers are from two to five metres thick. The production in 1926 was 80,598 tons.