l873»] Limits of our Coal Supply. 357 



The high temperature at 8000 or even 10,000 feet 

 would present a really serious difficulty during the first 

 opening of communication between the two pits. A spurt 

 of brave effort would here be necessary, and if anybody 

 doubts whether Englishmen could be found to make 

 the effort, let him witness a " pot-setting" at a glass-house. 

 Negro labour might be obtained if required, but my expe- 

 rience among English workmen leads me to believe that 

 they will never allow negroes or any others to beat them 

 at home in any kind of work, where the wages paid are 

 proportionate to the effort demanded. 



If I am right in the above estimates of working possi- 

 bilities, our coal resources may be increased by about forty 

 thousand millions of tons beyond the estimate of the Com- 

 missioners. To obtain such an additional quantity will 

 certainly be worth an effort, and unless we suffer a far worse 

 calamity than the loss of all our minerals, viz., a deterioration 

 of British energy, the effort will assuredly be made. 



I have said repeatedly that it is not physical difficulties, 

 but market value, that will determine the limits of our coal 

 mining. This, like all other values, is of course determined 

 by the relation between demand and supply. Fuel being 

 one of the absolute necessaries of life, the demand for it 

 must continue so long as the conditions of human existence 

 remain as at present, and the outer limits of the possible 

 value of coal will be determined by that of the next cheapest 

 kind of fuel which is capable of superseding it. 



We begin by working the best and most accessible seams, 

 and while those remain abundant the average value of coal will 

 be determined by the cost of producing it under these easy 

 conditions. Directly these most accessible seams cease to 

 supply the whole demand, the market value rises until it 

 becomes sufficient to cover the cost of working the less 

 accessible ; and now the average value will be regulated not 

 by the cost of working what remains of the first or easy 

 mines, but by that of working the most difficult that must 

 be worked in order to meet the demand. This is a simple 

 case falling under the well-established economic law, that 

 the natural or cost value of any commodity is determined 

 by the cost value of the most costly portion of it. Thus, 

 the only condition under which we can proceed to sink 

 deeper and deeper, is a demand of sufficient energy to keep 

 pace with the continually increasing cost of production. 

 This condition can only be fulfilled when there is no com- 

 peting source of cheaper production which is adequate to 

 supply the demand. 



vol. in. (n.s.) 3 A 



