CHAPTER IV. 



Middlemen in the Mineral Trades. 



COAL. 



Divisions of the Trade. ' 



The mines of Northumberland and Durham discharged their output 

 through the Tyne and Wear rivers, the ports of exportation being 

 Newcastle and Sunderland respectively. The Derwent carried the 

 product of the Cumberland mines to the coast and it was exported 

 from Whitehaven. South Wales dispersed its coal from Swansea 

 Bay and port. In the first quarter of the eighteenth century there 

 arose a river trade in coal from the mines of Lancashire and Yorkshire 

 sufiicient to supply the cities of the interior. The trade in coal on 

 the Severn, particularly in Salop, increased very fast as the iron 

 industry developed during the eighteenth century. The whole coal 

 trade, therefore, considered with reference to the supply, is distin- 

 guishable into five parts, three of which are sea-borne traffic and two 

 river-borne traffic. 



The Whitehaven^ coal trade was a growth, for the most part, of .the 

 eighteenth century. The destination of this course was the Irish 

 capital and coastal towns, some parts of West Scotland, and the Isle 

 of Man. There were (ca 1750) engaged about two hundred ships and 

 two thousand seamen. Whitehaven ranked next to Newcastle as a 

 coal exporting point, and Ireland was almost entirely dependent upon 

 this city. This trade originated during the sixteenth century but 

 made no rapid progress until the latter half of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury; under the genius of Sirs John and James Lowther Whitehaven 

 rose rapidly to prominence in the coal export business. Sir John 

 developed a system of staithing coal, like that used on the Tyne, so 

 as to steady the supply of coal for Dublin. The inventions of steam- 

 pumping engines gave a great impetus to the mines and shipping. A 

 system of carriage by wagons bearing 4400 pounds and rolling on iron- 



1 Refer to Defoe, Tour, III, 100: "Essai sur I'etat," 110, 122; Gallow.iy, Chapter 

 X; Postlethwayt, Die, s. v. Coal, for descriptions of this trade. 



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