THE LIMITS OF OUR COAL SUPPLY. 20? 



duction. This condition can only be fulfilled when there is 

 no competing source of cheaper production which is ade- 

 quate to supply the demand. 



The question then resolves inself into this: Is any source 

 of supply likely to intervene that will prevent the value of 

 coal from rising sufficiently to cover the cost of working 

 the coal seams of 4000 feet and greater depth? Without 

 entering upon the question of peat and wood fuel, both of 

 which will for some uses undoubtedly come into competition 

 with British coal as it rises in value, I believe that there are 

 sound reasons for concluding that our London fireplaces, 

 and those of other towns situated on the sea-coast and the 

 banks of navigable rivers, will be supplied with transatlantic 

 coal long before we reach the Commissioner's limit of 4000 

 feet. The higest prices of last winter, if steadily main- 

 tained, would be sufficient to bring about this important 

 change. Temporary upward jerks of the price of coal have 

 very little immediate effect upon supply, as the surveying, 

 conveyance, boring, sinking, and fully opening of a new 

 coal estate is a work of some years. 



The Eoyal Commissioners" estimate that the North- 

 American coal-fields contain an untouched coal area equal 

 to seventy times the whole of ours. Further investigation 

 is likely to increase rather than diminish this estimate. An 

 important portion of this vast source of supply is well 

 situated for shipment, and may be easily worked at little 

 cost. Hitherto, the American coal-fields have been greatly 

 neglected, partly on account of the temptations to agri- 

 cultural occupation which are afforded by the vast area of the 

 American continent, and partly by the barbarous barriers of 

 American politics. Large amounts of capital which, under 

 the social operation of the laws of natural selection, would 

 have been devoted to the unfolding of the vast mineral 

 resources of the United States, are still wastefully invested 

 in the maintenance of protectively nursed and sickly 

 imitation of English manufactures. When the political 

 civilization of the United States become sufficiently 

 advanced to establish a national free-trade policy, this per- 

 verted capital will flow into its natural channels, and the 

 citizens of the States will be supplied with the more highly 



