Craftsmen. 155 



only by carriage coastwise, of course, that any such 

 heavy article as coal could be conveyed a moderate 

 distance. Want of roads and of wheeled vehicles made 

 long land carriages impracticable. In 1775, a House of 

 Commons Committee had the duty entrusted to them 

 of inquiring into the state of the fisheries on the west 

 and northern coasts of Scotland. They seem to have 

 entered on their remit in a comprehensive spirit, dealing 

 with the fiscal condition generally of the districts under 

 their notice. And the account they give of the state 

 of the revenue in the nine northern counties, including 

 Argyle, Inverness, and Moray, on to Shetland, could 

 not have been encouraging in the eyes of those in charge 

 of the Exchequer. The average yield of the taxes 

 levied for ten years had been 5073 12s., and the 

 cost of collection, 5167 19s., leaving a deficit on 

 the debtor side of the Treasury account of .94 7s. 

 In speaking of the coal duty, the Committee say " It 

 appears from accounts laid on your table that the whole 

 nett duty collected on coal over all Scotland does not 

 exceed 3000 a-year ;" which they sensibly enough 

 remark, " furnishes the most convincing proof to your 

 Committee that the present duties are too high, and 

 operate more as a prohibition on the article than as 

 a benefit to the revenue." At 3s. 8d. a ton the net 

 revenue from coal carried coastwise to every port of 

 Scotland that lay outside the coal regions probably 

 three-fourths of the whole area at last would represent 

 a supply of less than 18,000 tons. As illustrating the 

 absolutely insignificant character of this supply in the 

 light of present-day requirements, it need only be stated 

 that at the one port of Aberdeen the yearly import of 

 coal " coastwise " now is much beyond 200,000 tons, 

 while many thousand tons are imported by railway. 



About the date just spoken of, the sum paid annually 

 by the inhabitants of Aberdeen for peat as fuel was as 

 much as 3000, frequently it was 4000; a greater 

 sum than appears to have been realised off the coal 



