AT THE CLOSE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUEY. 13 



Spam 1,441,000 tons. 



Sweden 2.458,000 „ 



Russia 2,981,000 ., 



Total 37,607,000 tons. 



We shall not be far wron,^ if avo assume that the quantity 

 exported to these countries in the past year, 1899, amounted 

 to forty millions of tons, and I wish to call special attention 

 to this point. 



Now the question arises. What benefit does this country 

 AS A STATE derive from the continuous outflow of this 

 natural product so essential to her prosperity and the 

 position she occupies as a great manufacturing and com- 

 mercial centre ? Doubtless the State benefits by the profits 

 of the coal-owners who export and sell the coal to the 

 foreigners ; but it seems only reasonable that the latter, who 

 are benefited by the sale of the mineral, should contribute 

 something towards the prosperity of the country from which 

 the mineral is derived. For, recollect that coal is not a 

 commodity which, like animal or vegetable substances, 

 can be reproduced. Once extracted from the ground it 

 cannot be restored; and thus foreign countries, which in 

 many cases have little claim to our generosity, and are (as 

 they have a right to be) absolutely selfish where their 

 own interests are concerned, are helping to deplete 

 our mineral resources — in other words, to drain the 

 life-blood of our commerce and manufactures. I hold, 

 therefore, very strongly the view that in the case of such 

 products of Nature as coal and petroleum, the country 

 which produces them has a claim, or lien, upon them beside 

 that of the owner of the soil under which the minerals are 

 found ; and if this be so, the State as such has a right to be 

 recouped for the benefit of the whole community. In the 

 case of the owner and the utiliser, this is done through 

 taxation on his profits ; so that he is in a worse position than 

 the foreigner who uses the mineral, but pays no tax for the 

 benefit ot the country from which the mineral is drawn. On 

 these grounds it seems to me that an export duty on coal 

 from this country to Continental States may be advocated 

 and defended; and the amount should not be less than five 

 shillings per ton, payable at the port where the coal is 

 shipped. If we take the export to Continental States at 

 40 millions of tons (as shown above), an export duty of five 



