A considerable revenue was for many years raised from all coal carried coast wise by sea from one part of the kingdom to another. When first imposed, in the reign of William III., this tax was 5s. per chaldron. but was raised during the war of the French revolution to 9s. 4a., at which rate it was continued until 1824; it was then reduced to 68., and in 1831 was wholly repealed.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. e. 64, to levy eight pence per ton " for providing for the payment of the interest and ultimate liquidation of monies bor rowed for making the approaches to London Bridge." The produce of this tax, which in 1842 was 89,642i., is mort gard 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 11,521/. in 1842. It has been said that the means of esta blishing 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 18. ld. per ton upon all coals brought coastwise to the port of London.
By letters patent granted by Charles II., the Duke of Richmond was entitled to re ceive la. per chaldron, Newcastle mea sure, 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 21,000/. a year. On the 19th of August, 1799, the Treasury agreed with the duke for the purchase of this duty by an annuity of 19,0001., 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 19,0001. for the duke was 490,833/. ; but the sums re ceived by the Custom House, as the repre 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 315,0001. The total revenue derived from the coasting duties on coals in 1830, the year preceding its repeal, was 1,021,862/.
A very peculiar regulation has been established by the coal-owners of the northern coal-field, called the " limita tion 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 limit ation of the vend has existed, with some pertie interruptions, since the year 1771. This arrangement is no less than a sys tematic 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 restric tion as to the quantity supplied. A com mittee appointed from among the owners holds its meetings regularly in the town of Newcastle, where a very costly esta blishment of clerks and agents is main tained. 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 propor tionate quantity the colliery shall be per mitted to furnish towards the general sup ply, 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 blishment the largest basis possible ; and 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 50001. per an num, or more, of "dead rent," to the owner of the soil, who, of course, exacts such payment in return for his concession, although his tenants may have no inten tion of using it. Instead of sinking one or two pits, which would afford ample fa cility for working the quantity which the mine is destined to yield, a third and pos sibly a fourth pit are sunk, at an enor mous 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 con sistency to the arrangements, instead of building 200 cottages for the workmen, double that number are provided. In this manner a capital of 160,000/. to 200,000/. 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 beproduced by means of an outlay of one-fourth or one-fifth of that amount. By this wastefhl 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, accord ing 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 X 50) 1000 chaldrons during the ensuing fortnight. The pit and the establishment may he equal to the supply of 3000 or 4000 chal drons; orders may be on the books to that extent, or more ; ships may be wait ing 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 col lieries until the advantage shall be neu tralized, 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 natu rally desirous of finding for their mrn during the remainder of the time some employment which shall lessen the ex pense of maintaining them in idleness, and spread over a larger quantity of pro duct the fixed expenses of their establish ments and their dead rents. To this end coals are raised which must find a sale in foreign countries ; and it practically re sults that the same quality of coals which, if shipped to London, are charged at 30s. 6d. per Newcastle chaldron, are sold to fo reigners 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 4 St. Petersburg and New York for 15s. to its., or little more than half the London price. Nor is this the worst effect of the system. In working a col liery 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 king dom, 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 thronFh 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 coal owner 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 1001. ; 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 London, and are to this effect :—" That whenever a greater num ber than eighty ships reach market on any one day, the factors shall offer them for sale according to the rotation of entry; lind that not more than forty of such ships hall be offered for sale on one market day, unless the prices of best coals be 20s. or upwards, and in that case to be at liberty to sell such further number of phips 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 Janu ary, 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 market day 21s. or less, the number of cargoes to be offered for sale shall be . 40 When 21s. 3d. or 21s. 6d. . 50 21s. 9d. or 22s. . . 60 228. 3d. .... 70." 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.