TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 193 



On the Progress, Extent and Value of the Coal and Iron Trade of the West 

 of Scotland. By John Strang, LL.D. 



The rapid progress which has of late years characterized some of the now largest 

 cities of Great Britain is mainly due to the mineral wealth which surrounds them, 

 to the existence, in fact, of those vast repositories of fuel or of metals which nature 

 has laid up for the use of man in the bowels of the earth. If one only casts his eye 

 over a geological map of this island, he will find in England, a Birmingham, a New- 

 castle, a Preston and a Manchester, placed in the midst of extensive coal-fields ; and 

 on looking at Scotland, he will at once discover, amid the general thinness of habi- 

 tation and population, at least one fully-peopled district, in the centre of which 

 stands the no less important manufacturing and commercial city of Glasgow, sur- 

 rounded on every side by the richest strata of coal, iron, and lime. To the mineral 

 wealth which exists in this portion of Scotland may be mainly attributed the promi- 

 nent position which this western metropolis has lately taken in the commerce and 

 manufactures of the world, and which the jsHowing statistical facts connected with 

 the progress, extent, and value of the coal and iron trades of the west of Scotland, 

 of which that city is the central mart, may perhaps in some degree better illustrate. 



Although coals have, from a pretty remote period, been wrought around Glasgow 

 chiefly for domestic use, yet it has only been since the introduction of the steam- 

 engine, and still more since the discovery of the economical mode of smelting iron 

 by the hot-blast, that the vast and closely-packed mineral wealth of its neighbouring 

 districts has been at all fully developed and turned to great profit. Even so late as 

 in the year 1831, the quantity of coals brought to Glasgow was only about 560,000 

 tons, and of that quantity 120,000 were exported, thereby leaving 440,000 tons for 

 domestic uses, steam-boats, public works and factories in the city and suburbs ; 

 while the quantity consumed, as well as the ironstone smelted in the comparatively 

 few furnaces then in blast, were small and unimportant. The contrast, indeed, of 

 the state of the coal and iron trades only five and twenty years ago with that of the 

 present moment, is most striking. From the returns obtained through Mr. Williams, 

 the Inspector of Mines for Scotland, it appears that while in 1854 there were 367 

 collieries in Scotland, 237 of these belong to the west country, 141 being in Lanark- 

 shire, 78 in Ayrshire, 11 in Dunbarton, and 7 in Renfrew. It also appears that 

 during the same year there were 7,448,000 tons of coals raised in Scotland, and of 

 these about 6,448,000 were drawn from pits situated in the four western counties 

 above alluded to. Taking into account all kinds of coals raised, such as splint, soft, 

 and gas, the average price may be fairlj' estimated at Ts. 6d. per ton, which shows 

 the produce derived from the coal-mines of the west of Scotland in 1854, to have 

 been about £2,418,000 sterling. 



Of the coals so produced, — 



2,152,800 tons were consumed in the manufacture of pig iron. 

 367,200 ,, ,, conversion of pig into malleable. 



Making in all 2,520,000 tons used in connexion with the manufacture of iron ; 

 while 926,221 tons were shipped, and 148,312 tons were sent beyond the boundaries 

 northward and southward, per railways, leaving for the manufacturing consumption, 

 steam-boats, and domestic uses of Glasgow, 2,853,427 tons. During the same 

 period the number of persons employed in the collieries, producing this quantity of 

 fuel, were as follows : — 



In Lanarkshire 15,580 



Ayrshire 6,06l 



Renfrewshire 790 



Dunbartonshire 549 



In all 22,980 



If the great development of the coal trade, as we have seen, has been of recent 



. origin, the manufacture of iron in Scotland is still more modern, having obtained its 



present almost marvellous position during the course of the last few years. So late 



as in 1830, there were only 16 blast furnaces in the West of Scotland, and the whole 



produce scarcely reached 40,000 tons. It appears, however, that during the year 



1855. 13 



