this inexorable decree of the God of nations, regulations as to trade and commerce made by either government must in the end yield. And, therefore, while we do not in any degree jeopard our independence by throwing open our ports, and our trade and commerce, wide and free, to these colonies, every such measure increases and strengthens their dependence upon us. A statement annexed exhibits the coal statistics of the United States for 1840 and 1850, as compiled from the published and unpublished census returns of those years. It is to be regretted that they could not have been furnished less imperfectly. The detailed returns of some of the assistant United States marshals, who took the census of 1850, are represented to be confused and irregular. Those returns do not profess to give an account of any establishment, or manufactory, or work, or mine of which the annual product is less than $500, and it is believed they understate the statistics as to those of which such product is over the sum specified, and many establishments are altogether omitted, and most of the compilations understate the marshal's returns. The officer having charge of the unpublished schedules, in communicating the paper from which the annexed statement has in part been prepared, says: I believe the returns will be found to be in many cases greatly short of the fact. Though after laborious examination of the different census accounts of 1850, to discover desired statistical information, the only thing certainly ascertained and established has been, that those who are in search of authentic and full information, if not satisfied of their disappointment in that quarter, are sure to be misled. Insomuch as the unreliable character of these census reports is pretty generally understood, they have been appended hereto to pass for what they are worth. They can do no harm. The following is a synopsis of them: Published census accounts of 1840 (p. 355): tons. 863,849 985, 824 3,013 3,768 Capital invested in raising anthracite coals. Capital invested in raising other coals.. Coals consumed in 1,699 iron manufactories in 1840 (p. 354). Unpublished census accounts of 1850: $4,355, 602 $1,868,862 $1,528, 110 Monthly wages. Number of coal-raising establishments Product (bushels of coal at 28 bushels per ton) Value at pits of coal raised.. Number of men employed Capital invested 383 .tons.. 4,408, 750 $6,299, 376 13,875 $304,975 $7,992, 731 Whenever any State is omitted in the official return, or evidently stated incorrectly, the proper quantity has been estimated, and in every such instance it is so stated. The foregoing items from the unpublished accounts of 1850, beingas before observed, exceedingly deficient and imperfect, some remarks and notes are subjoined to the statement, to which attention should be given. The published accounts of the census of 1850 furnish some data as to the coals consumed in the United States in that year, ending June 30, 1850. The items below given are taken from the Abstract of the Census, (pp. 154 to 160), which book seems to have been prepared with care and statistical ability. The number of colliers or coal traders in the United States in 1850, 2,948, and in which none are allowed to either Pennsylvania or Louisiana, and the numbers of different occupations, etc., have been taken from the published Census Report, pages 57 to 79, etc. Coals raised and coals consumed in the United States in 1850. [Domestic coals consumed in the United States in 1850, from Abstract of Census, pages 154 to 160.] In 1,094 manufactories of cotton goods In 422 manufactories of wrought iron Total quantity.... The exports of domestic coals, same year, as per United States Report on Commerce and Navigation for 1850, p. 40, were (value, $167,090)__ Add estimated quantity of domestic coals consumed in the United States in 1850 for all other uses and purposes than above specified, and under statement of quantities above given, as was used in the manufactories mentioned... Tons. 121,099 46,370 645, 242 190, 191 538,063 1,540, 965 38, 781 5,500,000 Estimated total quantity of coal raised in the United States in 1850. 7,079,746 The tons are estimated at 28 bushels per ton, and weighing 2,240 pounds. The estimated value of the coals raised (7,079,746 tons). at $2.50 per ton, average, for all kinds of coals, and in the various different localities where they are raised, is $17,699.36. The Abstract of the Census (ibid.) states, also, that the quantities of "coke, culm, and charcoal" used in the United States in the same manufactories above mentioned were as follows: In pig-iron manufactories. In castings In wrought iron.. Total...... Bushels. 54, 165, 236 2, 143, 750 14,510, 828 71,819, 814 What quantities of "coke, culm, and charcoal" were used in the same year, 1850, for uses and purposes besides those above specified can not be stated from any certain data. The imports into the United States of foreign coals for same year, 1850, and the exports of foreign coals, same year, were as follows (vide Statements B, C, and E). 'NOTE.-There were in 1850 colliers or coal traders, 2,948; employed in coal mines, 14,437; in cotton factories, 34,409; in woolen factories, 21,720; in iron foundries, furnaces, and rolling mills, 57,579; lime burners, 1,732; in saw, planing, and grist mills, 47,409; in glass factories, 5,433. Black and white smiths, 99,703; armorers, 469; bell and brass founders, 1,353; instrument makers, 2,756; boiler makers, 1,581; brass and composition makers, 573; coppersmiths, 1,760; cutlery makers, 892; file cutters, 291; gas fitters, 564; gas makers, 148; gunsmiths, 3,843: iron founders, 9,278; iron workers, 5,008; machinists, 24,095; nail manufacturers, 2,046; saw makers, 554; tinsmiths, 11,747. The commerce and navigation report of 1850 shows the United States had then 525,945 tons of steam vessels. Since 1850 there has been built-in 1851, 233 steamers; in 1852, 259 steamers; and in 1853, 271 steamers; in all, 760, and the tonnage is stated at 604,616 tons, and it is estimated there are 2,000 steam vessels. There are upward of 20 steamships and vessels in the naval, revenue, and coast survey service, and 6 new steam frigates are to be built. The United States use at least 50,000 tons of coals annually in the different branches of the public service. The memoranda in the Appendix contain estimates of the quantities of all the mineral coal (anthracite, semibituminous, bituminous, and cannel coals, etc.) raised in the United States in the year ending June 30, 1854, and also of the quantities supposed to have been raised in several of the different States in the same year, upon which the estimate as to 1854 are in part based. The absence of authentic and certain data whereon to found these estimates precludes the idea of their being advanced as anything else than conjectural indices, or approximations to the true quantities. Notice is made also of the movement and progress of the domestic coal trade, prices of different coals at different places in past years and in 1854, and the extraordinary increase of the raising of coals since 1819, unparalleled by that of any product of this country and, it is believed, of the world (except the cotton crop of the southern section of the United States), is also shown, and of the cost of transportation and prices of freights between different ports and places. The statistics therein given have been gathered from commercial newspapers and other publications of the United States. All the statements presented with this paper, stated to have been compiled from the returns of the United States Treasury, may be fully relied upon, as may also those taken from the official British and provincial returns. An intelligent Boston merchant has suggested that the quantity annually used by New England, for two or three years past, of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland coals is an average of about 1,100,000 tons. A careful consideration of the statistics now presented has induced the opinion that the quantity stated is too small. This opinion is strengthened into conviction by the fact (proved beyond all question by the census returns for 1850) that in the year named at least 153,000 tons of mineral coal were consumed by the New England cotton, woolen, pig-iron, castings, and wrought-iron manufactories; and at least 5,500,000 bushels of coke, culm, and charcoal were also consumed in that year in the same pig-iron, castings, and wrought-iron manufactories. These quantities do not include the coals, etc., used for railroad locomotives, for domestic fuel, for glass manufactories, for gas, for other manufactories and mills, for printing presses, for steamships and steamboats, and many other purposes. They do not include the consumption by those whose establishments did not produce over $500 annually. Nor is the consumption of these coals, etc., by the 13,932 black and white smiths, the 286 armorers, the 81 instrument makers, the 90 boiler makers, the 101 brass and composition makers, the 485 cutlery makers, the 318 glass manufacturers, the 46 file cutters, the 301 gunsmiths, the 9,741 machinists, the 940 nail manufacturers, the 69 saw makers, the 2,124 tinsmiths, or the 143 plumbers, etc., in the six New England States (vide Census Report, preface, page 57, etc.) included. Considering the increased consumption since 1850, it is confidently assumed that not less than 2,000,000 tons of mineral coals, etc., were consumed in New England during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1854. And nearly all of these coals were domestic, and from the three Middle Atlantic States, before mentioned; and nearly the whole of the coke, culm, and charcoal used by the same consumers and others in the United States was domestic also, as but 50 tons were imported into the United States in 1853 and none in 1852. Not more than 110,000 tons of foreign coals, of which, say, about 20,000 tons was probably British and 90,000 tons Nova Scotia coals, it is estimated were used in all New England during the year 1854. The total imports of all foreign coals into the United States in 1853, less the exports of same coals, was 231,009 tons, of which 108,831 tons were from Great Britain and Ireland and 120,764 tons from the British North American colonies, and of which it is estimated that one-fifth of the European coals and four-fifths of the provincial coals so imported, being near the quantities just specified, were consumed in New England in 1853. As the imports of foreign coals have not increased in the last year, the same estimate is made for 1854. The domestic coals exported in 1853 were 79,150. The quantity has increased in 1854. It is supposed that the domestic coals sold to foreign steamers for fuel, on their voyages from our ports on the Atlantic, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the Pacific, and in the great lakes (and therefore for foreign consumption, though not included in the accounts of domestic exports), if the quantities could be obtained, when added to the exports, would nearly equal the total of all the foreign coals imported and used in the United States. As before noticed, there is sold annually in Boston and New York quite 50,000 tons of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland semibituminous and bituminous coals to the British Cunard steamers alone. Estimating the annual increase since 1850 at 10 per cent per annum, the quantity of coals raised in the United States in 1854 would be as follows: Quantity estimated to have been raised in 1850.. Tons. 7,000,000 2,800,000 9,800,000 But to prevent the charge of overestimate, the quantity is now set down at 9,000,000 tons, which is certainly beneath the true quantity raised, and this does not include the quantity of domestic coke, culm, etc., that can not have fallen short of 90,000,000 bushels in the same year. A statement in appendix contains an estimate, based on the best authorities that could be procured for reference, of the acres in square miles of the coal fields of some of the principal coal countries of the world, with their present supposed annual production and exportation. The areas of the different coal fields of Great Britain and the British Isles and Ireland have been variously estimated. The aggregate area of those fields is now generally set down at 11,860 square miles. The annual production of these mines has also been differ 'NOTE.-The statement referred to shows that Great Britain is first of the countries of the Old World as to extent of coal fields. production, and exports of coals, but the single State of Illinois has four times, and Iowa has twice the area of coal fields that Great Britain has. Virginia. Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio, each exceed Great Britain in such area, and Illinois, Iowa, and Virginia, each exceed such area in Great Britain and all Europe united. In production, Great Britain stands first, and the United States next; and of the United States, Pennsylvania far exceeds any other State in production, and in fact she produces more than half the entire quantity raised in the United States. The British North American provinces exceed in area the coal fields of Great Britain and all Europe together, but do not equal Virginia, Iowa, or Illinois. (See vol. 1, p. 26, Sir Charles Lyell's travels in the United States, describing the coal fields of Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky.) ently stated. The following statement gives the production for the year 1854 at 42,000,000 tons. The consumption and exportation is estimated as follows: Production of coal in Great Britain and Ireland in 1854. Home consumption Exports to colonies and to all foreign countries (see Table 2. in Appendix for 1852) 38,000,000 4,000,000 Total production in 1854.... 42,000,000 Mr. McCulloch in his Commercial Dictionary of 1847 (vol. 1, p. 298, London edition of 1850) gives the production at 34,600,000 tons for the year 1845. Mr. Spackman, in his work published in London in 1847, styled "An Analysis of the Occupations of the People" (p. 96), estimates the total production for 1846 at 38,400,000 tons. Insomuch as the official returns of the exports of Great Britain for 1845 show that a greater quantity, by 731,000 tons, was exported to the colonies and foreign countries than Mr. McCulloch allows, it is presumed Mr. Spackman is the most correct; and Mr. McC., in his Statistical Account of the British Empire, published in London in 1847 (p. 599), says that 38,400,000 tons was, for 1846, "moderately estimated." When it is considered that less than 1 per cent per annum is allowed for the increased consumption since 1846, and that no account is taken of the consumption of Ireland, except by including the exports to that island from Great Britain, it is believed this estimate of 42,000,000 tons for 1854 will be regarded as equally moderate. The estimated average value of these coals at the pits is about 10 shillings per ton, or £24,000,000. The average cost of these coals to consumers in cities and towns to which they can be transported readily and cheaply, and to purchasers in ports of shipment abroad, varies from 11 shillings to 35 shillings per ton. The vast resources of the United States, both in coal and iron; the nearer equalization of the wages of labor in this and the Old World, continually taking place in consequence of the immigration of hundreds of thousands of the best European laborers hither every year; the fact that foreign capital is constantly seeking profitable and safe investments here to escape the apprehended political convulsions in the Old World; and the unequaled enterprise and industry of our people, caused by the cheering and invigorating influences of our republican institutions upon the workingmen, render it quite certain that in less than a quarter of a century we shall outstrip every nation on the globe in the production of coal and iron and in the manufacture of iron, and that we shall be in advance of every other people in agricultural products and in navigating and commercial resources. 'NOTE.-See also on this subject McQueen's British Statistics, London, 1834, pp. 70 to 74; Porter's Progress of the Nation, London, 1851, p. 274, etc.; Marshall's Statistics of the British Empire, London, 1836, p. 237; official Statistical Abstract for United Kingdom, to 1853, p. 16; R. C. Taylor's Statistics of Coal, Philadelphia, 1848, pp. 257, 258, 259, etc. |