COAL. 



105 



pany made arrangements to ship coal from 

 South Amboy a movement which resulted in 

 increasing the winter competition by about 

 100,000 tons, the amount shipped by this com- 

 pany during the period that general inland navi- 

 gation was closed. As a consequence, prices 

 steadily weakened and stocks accumulated. 

 On the opening of navigation there was a much 

 better demand for coal ; but the production in- 

 creased so rapidly that prices continued their 

 downward course, which was only checked by 

 the strikes in the Wyoming region, which be- 

 gan in July. 



At this time there had been shipped to mar- 

 ket over 3,000,000 tons more coal than for the 

 corresponding period of 1876, and there were 

 very liberal stocks, which, with a fair produc- 

 tion from the regions still working, and under 

 advanced prices, sufficed to supply the require- 

 ments of the market until work was fully re- 

 sumed in the middle of October. After this, 

 and under the demoralizing influences of the 

 auction sales, prices began to decline, reaching 

 in November, at the Delaware, Lackawanna, 

 and Western Railroad Company's auction sale, 

 an average of $2.35J per gross ton, the lowest 

 price ever recorded in the New York market ; 

 the nearest approach having been at an auction 

 sale by the same company in the previous June, 

 when an average of $2.37 per ton was reached. 



These ruinously low prices lent intensity to 

 the .movement for a renewal of the coal com- 

 bination, which had been discussed from time 

 to time since the resumption of work at the 

 mines, and the somewhat widely-held belief 

 that such a combination would be effected, re- 

 sulting in steadily advancing prices, and, at the 

 same time, decreasing the demand for coal. 



The very open fall enabled shipments to be 

 continued to an unprecedentedly late date; and 

 although prices advanced at the last of the 

 year, and new orders were not liberally given, 

 yet the desire to have all old orders filled re- 

 sulted in brisk shipments to the last, and, as a 

 consequence, cleared the order-books, and left 

 lighter stocks of coal on hand at the end of the 

 year than has been the case for several years 

 past. 



Early in the year a large number of season 

 contracts wore made on terms which indicated 

 that there was to be a war in prices. The 

 Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Company 

 clearly showed that its policy was to do a largo 

 business without reference to the other com- 

 panies. To accomplish this, its management 

 shrewdly foresaw that the best prices obtainable 

 at the beginning of the year would be very lib- 

 ral ones later in the season, and it took largo 

 orders at prices then ruinously low, but which 

 have since appeared very good. After exhaust- 

 ing its regular markets, this company was 

 found, " pushing the war into Africa," and tak- 

 ing orders along the Hudson River, passing the 

 shipping wharves of the Pennsylvania Coal 

 Company and the Delaware & Hudson Canal 

 Company. 



The next step was naturally to compete with 

 the Northern companies in the markets along 

 the line of the Erie Canal and on the great 

 lakes, which it did successfully. But more 

 than this, it opened an office in New Haven, 

 Conn., and distributed its coal throughout 

 every portion of the New England States, 

 opening many markets previously supplied ex- 

 clusively from the Lackawanna and Lehigh 

 basins. By this bold and well-defined policy 

 the Philadelphia & Reading Company de- 

 monstrated clearly that it was able to compete 

 successfully in any and all the markets supplied 

 by its Northern rivals, or, in combination term, 

 that all the markets are " competitive." It also 

 demonstrated to the satisfaction of consumers 

 that, siirce the operators in the Schuylkill re- 

 gion have taken the same pains as their neigh- 

 bors in the preparation of their coals for market, 

 there is so little choice between the coals of 

 the different fields that, for many purposes, a 

 difference of a few cents a ton will change the 

 market from one to the other. So dangerous 

 a rival was, of course, vigorously opposed by 

 the companies already in possession of these 

 profitable markets, and a war in prices ensued, 

 which resulted in rates so extremely and un- 

 necessarily low as to leave no profit to any 

 concerned. 



" The course of the anthracite trade during 

 the year," continues the Journal, " has afford- 

 ed some important lessons. With a consump- 

 tion more than 2,000,000 tons greater than in 

 1876, the prices have steadily declined through- 

 out the year ; and though they have been so 

 low as to be quite inadequate to meet the ' fixed 

 charges' of nearly all the large coal companies, 

 and have been but little above cost of produc- 

 tion to the most economical end lightly loaded 

 of the producers, yet even these minimum 

 prices have not succeeded in driving bitumi- 

 nous coal from the market, though they have, 

 no doubt, checked the growth of that trade. 

 Had the price of anthracite been as high during 

 the year 1877 as it was under the combination 

 when, as events have proved, the companies 

 were rapidly drifting to bankruptcy the 

 amount marketed would not have been with- 

 in 8 or perhaps 4 million tons as great as it 

 has been, while the consumption of bitumi- 

 nous coal would have largely increased. A 

 large part of the manufacturing and productive 

 industry of the country has grown far beyond 

 the requirements of our domestic markets, and 

 must seek in foreign countries an outlet for 

 our surplus production. The ability to do this 

 is largely dependent, in more ways than one, 

 on a supply of cheap fuel. The growing com- 

 petition of bituminous coal will also act as a 

 check on the exaction of high prices for an- 

 thracite. From these and other reasons it 

 would seem, therefore, that the average price 

 of anthracite in future will range lower than 

 in the past, and it is to large production and 

 economy, rather than to high prices, that the 

 companies must look for profit." 



