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well as success has been encountered. It may be said with confidence, that without this skill to diminish the hazard of failure, and without such an extent of capital as will neutralize the failure of one attempt by the success of another, mining for coal can never be carried to any extent, or conducted with any success. It is not in our power to furnish an accurate statement of the amount of capital and labor engaged in the James river coal works, or the value of the coal lands, which depend on the prosperity of the coal trade for the permanence of the prices at which they are con stantly bought and sold. It is believed to be not too much to estimate the property in land, capital, and labor involved, at many millions.

This great interest has advanced to its present magnitude during a very short period. Previous to the year 1820, it is believed that the whole export from Virginia to the northern ports of the Union did not exceed 500,000 bushels. Since that period, the increase of production has been in constant and accelerating progression. In the year 1835, the amount exported from Richmond to different ports of the United States had attained to about three million five hundred thousand bushels, with a supply to the home market of nearly a million of bushels.

To bring about this great increase, and to meet the anticipated growth in the demand for manufacturing purposes, immense exertions have been made by the proprietors and colliers. Formerly, the quantity of coal required could be obtained near the surface, and shafts or pits of 100 or 200 feet were found sufficient. In consequence, the degree of skill, labor, and capital required, was comparatively small horse power alone was used for raising the coal and draining the works of water. At present, steam engines are found necessary, and are employed, and shafts of 500 and 600 feet in perpendicular depth have been sunk, and others still deeper are in progress; while the workings in the dip, or line of descent of the coal, are pushed to still lower levels. For the enormously increased hazard and expense of these works, individual enterprise has been thought insufficient, and several companies have been chartered by the Legislature of Virginia, with capitals varying from $50,000 to $300,000 each. The former means of transport being found insufficient, rail-ways and canals have been constructed at great expense, for the sole use of the coal trade. To this trade the State of Virginia is indebted for the Chesterfield rail-way, which furnished, by its construction and success, the first example and encouragement to the many great undertakings of the kind, now complete or in progress, so much to the honor and advantage of the State. It is well known how much the accommodation of the coal trade, and the profit expected from the tolls thereon, conduced to the great undertaking of the James and Kanawha improvement now in progress, the favorite object of the State, and universally regarded as the most important public work within its limits. For the conveyance of coal from Richmond to the northern ports, more than one hundred vessels are required, many of which are of a peculiar construction, expressly adapted to this trade, whose value would be greatly diminished if driven to seek other employment.

Such is a most inadequate view of the magnitude of the property, and the widely diversified interests connected therewith, which is now assailed at the imminent risk of producing incalculable mischief.

Of the serious importance, or rather the indispensable necessity, of the Virginia coal trade to the permanent security and continuance of manufac tures, the most indispensable, in the opinion of Congress, to the welfare of

the nation, it is sufficient to say, that by far the greater part of the coal exported from James river is employed in the manufacture of iron. If the production of coal in Virginia should be put down, that manufacture, as an object of national importance, would be placed in absolute dependance on Great Britain for its existence; the whole supply of bituminous coal, without which it could not be carried on in many of its most important branches, is derived from Virginia, Great Britain, or her colony in Nova Scotia. It will be at once seen that the manufacture which has been so carefully cherished as of vital importance to national independence and defence, will, in that event, be subjected to the control of a foreign power, by whose active warfare or commercial hostility it might be at any time prostrated.

That this trade has been, in a great measure, created by the legislation of Congress, and has grown to its present height in consequence of the encouragement of the revenue laws, and in the confidence of their permaneure, will be manifest by a slight attention to its history. The duty on coal from 1794 to 1812, was five cents per bushel; during the war, it was doubled. In 1816, after the war, it was reduced to five cents on the heaped bushel, and so continued until 1824, when it was raised to six cents on the heaped bushel, at which it has remained. In the year 1833, the law, commonly regarded as a compromise of the tariff question, provided for the limited continuance and for the reduction of this, in common with other duties. Previous to the year 1824, no very great advance took place in the coal trade, although it slowly improved with the increasing skill of the colliers, and the gradual enlargement of their capital. But from the year 1824 to the present time, the extension of this business has been very great; the explanation is this: very little of the Virginia coal is used for domestic fuel, except in Richmond, in the neighborhood of which it is produced. The chief demand elsewhere for this coal has been for manufactures, as iron, glass, &c.; but, above all, for iron. The great extension of the iron manufacture since the year 1824, in consequence of the various tariff laws which have been enacted designedly for that purpose among others, is well known to the whole country. With the increase of the manufacture of iron, glass, &c., came an increased demand for coal; and the prosperity of the one, thus artificially produced by the legislation of Congress, produced a corresponding increase in the other. Thus, not only was the coal trade stimulated by duties imposed for its direct benefit, which was the case for the first time with the duty of the year 1824, (the previous duties having been laid on that article merely for revenue,) but still more so by the duties apon iron, &c., and the consequent increase of the manufacture. Those who were interested in the coal trade being thus doubly encouraged, urged and incited by the legislation of the country, and feeling secure behind the roa trade, the favorite object of Congress, which could never be rendered independent of foreign nations without securing to it an independent supply of fuel within our own limits, have yielded to the impulse, and advanced that business to its present height.

Your memorialists are confident that Congress will not be induced to interfere with interests of such magnitude and importance, which have not only been encouraged, but it may be said have been forced into existence,

legislation; and now repose upon the faith of its promised pro tection, under the compromise of the year 1833, without being compelled to do so by the strong and unquestionable demand of justice and expediency.

And where or in what is to be found the justice or the expediency of yielding to the demand now made for the reduction of the duty on coal? Can it be that the manufacturers, to whose works a supply of coal is indispensable, demand this reduction on the ground of expediency and justice? Have they not succeeded, by importunity or by argument, in convincing the Legislature that domestic industry should be encouraged, and that we should make ourselves independent of foreign nations by the encouragement of manufactures? And do they now, with the same importunity, but by a very different course of argument, require that those manufactures, which were to render the nation independent, shall themselves be made dependant on foreign supplies; and that the domestic industry of the colliers, in which as much inteiligence, skill, and capital is required and employed as in any branch of manufacture whatsoever, (after having been fomented and urged forward to its present advanced state by the enactments of Congress, brought about, in a great measure, by their own solicitation,) shall be abandoned to a ruinous competition with foreign productions?

It is proper here to remark, that the duty on coal, which has continued, with little alteration, from the year 1792 to the present time, was not sought for from this quarter, nor was it originally designed as a protective duty; it was laid merely for revenue purposes, and it was not until the year 1824 that it was regarded as a protection to the collier. Then, for the first time, it was held out as a boon to Virginia, in compensation for the burdens imposed by the tariff, and an addition of one cent per bushel was made to it, expressly on that ground. The boon was unasked at the time, but, being regarded as part of a system not likely to be changed, great interests have grown up under it; and can it be possible that those at whose instance this boon was given, as a small return for the great objects aimed at and attained by themselves, should now demand that this most inadequate compensation should be retracted, and yet claim for themselves the continued enjoyment of the immense advantage which they have received for their own share?

If the present price of coal is complained of, by whom or by what class, whether manufacturers or others, can this complaint be urged, to whom the reply is not ready, that their own charges have been increased in equal or greater proportion? The prices of all manufactures in which coal is concerned, and the profits of those engaged in them, have greatly increased in the last two years; that increase has occasioned an enlargement of their production, and this has increased the demand for coal; with the increased demand, the price of coal has risen; and shall they complain of the rise in the price of coal, when that rise has been occasioned by the rise in the price of their own commodities, and the increased prosperity of their own business? The immense increase in the price of iron, for instance, in the last two years, varying, according to the nature of the article, from fifty to one hundred per cent., has occasioned a great extension of the iron business, and this extension has been strongly manifested in the increased demand for coal by the iron trade. It is preposterous for the iron manufacturer to complain that coal has also risen in price.

That a great increase in the price of labor has taken place, is universally known; and the price of labor in coal-pits (by no means a favorite occupa tion) has perhaps risen more than in any other pursuit, from the competition for laborers in public and private works, most of which have the preference as employments. That coal, with a fair demand, should rise with

the rise of price for labor, is but just and natural, and surely affords no ground for altering the permanent law of the country.

Notwithstanding, however, the increased price of all other commodities, as well as that of labor, your memorialists are of opinion, that, but for accidental causes hereafter to be mentioned, the price of coal would not have been enhanced at all, or but slightly; and they are satisfied that the price will very shortly be reduced, when the great works now in progress for the enlarged production of coal shall be in operation, although the present prices of provision, labor, and other charges, should continue.

The accidental circumstances alluded to, as influencing the supply of coal, are the tumbling or caving in of two of the most productive mines on the south side of James river. The pits of A. & A. Wooldridge, which in 1835 yielded 760,000 bushels, have this year produced but 70,000 bushels; and, since March last, have afforded no coal. The pits of the Black Heath Company of Colliers, in consequence of a similar accident, have been less productive, by 100,000 bushels, than they would have been but for this cause. The former of these establishments (that of A. & A. Wooldridge) is succeeded by the Midlothian Company, chartered by the State of Virginia, with a capital of $300,000. This company is now engaged in sinking four shafts, or pits, which will be carried to various depths, from four hundred to seven hundred feet. They have been engaged in these operations for about ten months. When their pits are finished, which will be at different periods between twelve and eighteen months hence, they expect to be able to farmish to the coal market from one to two millions per annum. The Black Heath Company of Colliers, whose capital is also $300,000, have nearly completed a shaft of six hundred feet in depth, and expect daily to reach the coal, and have no doubt of being able to supply a million of bushels to the market annually. The Etna Coal Company, which came into exist ence last year, and supplied but 300,000 bushels, expect to increase the amount this year, and afterwards to double or treble that amount. Many other new enterprises are now in progress on both sides of James river, in various stages, some commencing, and others with shafts already sunk to the coal, and about, with the new year, to begin raising coal. Those spe cified are mentioned as examples of the great scale, both of enterprise and capital, on which the Virginia coal works are now carried on. So far from any danger existing of an insufficient supply, there is great reason to apprehend an excess of competition and production. This, indeed, has always been the case, to a certain extent, until the present year. It has rarely ever happened before that the supply has not considerably exceeded the demand, the production being constantly ahead of the consumption, and the collier has constantly had reason to apprehend that excessive competition would make the price of the article ruinously low. A season has rarely, if ever, occurred before, in which the colliers have not been left with large stocks on hand.

Besides the effect about to be produced on the price of coal by the great. mcrease of production, it will be further influenced by a great reduction in the cost of transportation which will shortly take place. The rail road by which the Chesterfield coal (which forms the great bulk of that which is shipped to northern ports) is conveyed, now receives six cents per bushel for transportation from the mines to the shipping. By the charter of the rail-road company, it is provided that as soon as the capital stock is refunded, the charges of transportation must be so reduced as not to yield

more than enough to keep up the rail-road, and pay a dividend of six per cent. per annum on the stock. In the course of five years, sixty per cent. of the stock has been refunded; and within two years, at farthest, it is expected that the whole stock will be reimbursed, and the toll for transporting. coal will be reduced from six to one or two cents per bushel. Thus, with a reduction of at least four cents per bushel in the costs of transportation and a great increase in the production, no apprehension can possibly be entertained either of a short supply or a high price; but, on the contrary, a redundancy in the supply and an unexampled cheapness may be confidently expected in a year or two.

That owing to an increased demand for coal of very recent origin, and an accidental and temporary diminution in the means of supplying that increased demand, from the causes mentioned above, the demand is now, for the first time, fully up to the supply, and the price of coal has risen, is true; but this is no more than what necessarily takes place from time to time in every kind of business. The increase in the price of iron or of coal, or any other article, occasions an increase in the production. The increase of price is perhaps a temporary evil or inconvenience, but the extension of the business occasioned thereby is a permanent advantage, and must soon have the effect of bringing down the price to its proper level. Why should the coal trade be denied the advantage of favorable vicissitudes, and the permanent commercial regulations of the country be altered, to prevent it from enjoying this benefit, which has to it been of rare occurrence? Is it not equally subject with every branch of industry to occasional depression and calamity? In the year 1834, the coal trade was reduced to extreme distress. During six months of that year, the coal mines were scarcely worked at all, and the laborers, who are necessarily hired by the year, were at wages and found by the employers, who could make no use of them; and so disastrous was that year, that the body of coal raised during the remaining six months of the year was more than sufficient for the demand, and large stocks remained on hand at the end of the season unsold. The coal trade has not yet wholly repaired the losses of that unfortunate year, the difficulties of which arose not from the colliers, but from the failure of demand on the part of the manufacturers and other purchasers. It is also true, and a matter deserving attention, as a test of the justice of the complaint that the price of coal is too high, that the price of fuel of all kinds has risen in equal, or indeed greater, proportion; and this no less where coal is not used at all, than where its consumption is great and may be supposed to influence the market.

That the competition to which the Virginia colliers will be exposed if the duties are removed, must of necessity be ruinous in the present state of their works, is manifest from the fact, that, even with the existing duties, great quantities of foreign coal ale imported; and from the peculiar advantages which would operate in favor of the coal of Great Britain and Nova Scotia, all expectation of a fair competition must be unfounded. Although coal is more abundant and cheaper in England than in any other country, if a freight proportioned to the length of the voyage were. paid on the English coal, not a chaldron, it is confidently believed, would be brought to this country. But from the fact that the produce conveyed from this country to England consists of articles of great bulk, while the manufactures returned occupy but a comparatively small space, it happens that the greater part of the shipping on the voyage from England would

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