Middlemen in English Business 221 



single exception of the Humber valley. Newcastle/ Sunderland and 

 Blith engaged a prodigious fleet of colliers,- and this trade was regarded 

 by the mercantilist statesmen of the day as the most effectual nursery 

 of English seamen. These ports exported considerable quantities 

 to Holland and France, also.^ The harbor at Sunderland was poor 

 and shallow; the colliers had to load in open road — a dangerous task 

 for the keelmen ; but it had the advantage of being on the open sea and 

 the ships could put off with every wind, whereas at Newcastle they 

 were constrained to await favorable winds."* 



The relative importance of the ports with respect to the import of 

 Newcastle coal is indicated by the total duties paid" in some year. 

 Passing London which paid ten times as much as any other port, the 

 rank of the ports in this regard was Lynn, Yarmouth, Rochester, 

 Boston, Southampton, Portsmouth, Whitby, Ipswich, Exeter, Wis- 

 beach, Plymouth, Truro, etc., Lynn paying about four times as 

 much as Truro.® Lynn distributed her receipts by way of the Ouse, 

 Nen, and Witham into the Isle of Ely, and the counties of Lincoln, 

 Northampton, Leicester, Buckingham, Bedford, Cambridge and 

 Norfolk. Essex and Suffolk were supplied through Colchester and 

 Harwich; Kent and Sussex through the Medway, Cray, Aran, and 

 Stour.' 



London far exceeded all other ports in the receipt of coal. Petty 

 estimated that in the interval between 1636 and 1676 the imports of 

 this article had quadrupled and were, at the latter date, 80,000 tons.** 



' The amount of coal shipped from the Tyne coastwise from 1661 to 1723, and 

 coastwise and oversea from 1723 to 1766 were in decennial yearly averages (based 



on Surtees, 105:206-1): 



Tons Tons 



1661-1670 336,000 1723-1730 710,000 



1671-1680 424,000 1731-1740 764,000 



1681-1690 512,000 1741-1750 747,000 



1691-1700 479,000 1751-1760 785,000 



1701-1710 482,000 1761-1766 860,000 



^ Sometimes there were five or six hundred of these colliers in the port of London 

 at one time. See Postlethwayt. Diet., s. v. British Empire; Galloway, M. 



' The earliest mention of the foreign coal trade was during the reign of Edward 

 II. During the sixteenth century Newcastle coal became "that thinge that France 

 can lyve no more withowte than the fyshe without water." See Galloway, 12, 20-1 . 



* Postlethwayt, Diet., s. v. England. 



' The duties were payable at the port of importation; 9 and 10 \Vm. 111. Cap. 13. 



" Anderson, Origin, IV, 691. 



^ "Essai sur I'etat," 121; Postlethwayt, Diet., s. v. British Empire. 



' If any dependence can be placed on Petty's estimate, this 80,000 was about 

 one-fifth of the total Newcastle coastwise traffic, considering it an average year of 



