COAL TRADE. 
157 
military civilization. A grant to the Abbey 
of Peterborough in 853 gives evidence that 
the monks were acquainted with its value ;* 
the notices of its use are scanty during the 
Plantagenet period^ and it is not until 
Britain became distinguished for her manu¬ 
facturing and commercial efforts that its 
importance became fully realized. 
Thus has it ever been^ the earth in its 
. material stores and properties has been the 
handmaid of the mind of man : attending 
every step of his progress, yielding up her 
riches as he has acquired the power to use 
them. 
Besides the enormous addition to the 
comforts and conveniences of life made by 
the fossilized forests of a former era, they 
also afford direct subsistence to an immense 
number of persons engaged in the commerce 
arising from their productions. 
In the year 1700 London alone received 
680,000 Tons of Coal from Newcastle, in 
the course of a century this became doubled, 
and for the last 17 years the quantities 
* Vide Whitaker’s Manchester, vol. 2, p. 37, 39. 
O 
