116 
BALL ANr> SIMPSON: COALFTKLDS OF INDIA. 
CHAPTER III. 
PRODUCTION, TRADE, LABOUR, ETC. 
Under the existing conditions governing the world's commerce 
the magnitude of the coal industry of any 
thJcLf'fndusfrr country may be taken to be the measure of 
that country's commercial importance, and the 
expansion and contraction of the industry is perhaps the best 
possible gauge of increasing or decreasing prosperity. Since the 
publication of Mr. Ball's statistical tables^ in 1881, the coal trade 
of India has undergone enormous expansion, the significance of 
which can be appreciated when it is understood that it is directly 
due to the ever-increasing extensions of her railway system, the 
growing importance of her manufactures and the advance in her 
foreign trade. The extent of this development can be appreciated 
from the following tabl(5 in which are shown the total production, 
exports and imports of coal between 1881 and 1910 : — 
Year. 
Imports. 
Prcduction. 
Exports, (a) 
1881 
805,924 
997,730 
1 
1882 
597,334 
1,130,242 
1883 
672,151 
1,315,976 
1884 
754,641 
1,397,818 
100 
1885 
835,658 
1,294,221 
326 
188(5 
762,154 
1,388,487 
500 
1 Manual of the Geology of India, Vol. Ill, p. 63, (1881). 
(a) 1881 to 1888 official years ; 1889 to 1910 calendar years, 
