COAL 



Trade 



THE INDIAN COAL INDUSTRY 



Patent Fuel during the years 1897-8 to 1906-7 (including Government 

 stores) : 



Imports and 

 Exports. 



Coke to Coal. 



Imports. 



Receiving 

 Province. 



Exports* 



Receiving 

 Countries. 



Possible Future 

 Market. 



Coastwise 

 Trade. 



In these returns each ton of coke has been counted as 1^ tons of coal. 



It has been urged that the above figures are unimportant when contrasted 

 with present production. That may be quite true, but only so long as 

 it is recollected that the imports are now just one-fourth the quantity of 

 those in 1888-9 and that the exports have now (1906-7) exceeded the 

 transactions of the record year of imports. As illustrative of the normal 

 direction of the foreign traffic, it may be explained that by far the major 

 portion of the imports comes from the United Kingdom. The analysis of 

 the total supply in 1906-7 would be as follows : from United Kingdom 

 227,158 tons ; from Japan 4,505 tons ; from Australia 25,863 tons, and 

 from all other countries the balance. The receiving province is Bombay, 

 which in 1906-7 took 220,751 tons out of the total (262,286 tons). Of the 

 exports, Ceylon and the Straits Settlements are the most important foreign 

 receiving countries. Out of the total exports in 1906-7 Ceylon took 404,149 

 tons and the Straits 293,788 tons, and these figures approximately represent 

 the relative demands of the countries named during the past five years. 

 Practically the whole of the exports are made from the port of Calcutta, 

 which being near the Bengal fields is the natural centre of distribution. 



To dream of a future of greatly expanded foreign export of coal from 

 India does not necessarily involve the acceptance of a literal fulfilment 

 of Horace Walpole's reputed prophecy that " England will be some day 

 conquered by New England or Bengal." An export trade has become 

 an established fact and one of great possibilities. His Excellency Lord 

 Curzon, after inspecting a portion of the Jherria Coalfield, addressed a 

 company of gentlemen interested in the coal-mining industry on January 

 22, 1903. Speaking of the foreign trade, his lordship said : " Indian 

 coal can hardly be expected to get beyond Suez on the west or Singapore 

 on the east. At those points you come up against English coal on the 

 one side and Japanese coal on the other. But I wish to point out that 

 there is a pretty extensive market between, and I think that Indian coal 

 should make a most determined effort to capture it." 



Coasting Trade. The foreign exports represent, however (on an 

 average) but one-fourth the total exports by sea from Calcutta. The 

 other port towns of India itself draw very largely on Bengal for coal. 

 Bombay is by far the most important receiving port : in 1905, 1,067,779 

 tons were consigned to the western capital. Then comes Rangoon, which 

 in 1905 took 361,572 tons of Bengal coal; Karachi, 343,406; Madras, 



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