David,
>I have heard it said (but not found written reference) that the introduction
>of railways to an area reduced the price of coal by about 50%. They were
>therefore a mixed blessing since where they brought means of transport to
>some mines and increased their life span and profitability, to others they
>represented increased competition. Is this true?
>
Church (The History of the British Coal Industry, Vol. 3, 1830-1913:
Victorian Pre-eminence, 1986, p. 44) suggests transport cost savings, over
road, in Scotland of more than 20 to 30 per cent. The influence on pit head
prices was of course much wider than that which could be effected by the
growth of the national rail network but the local affect on doorstep prices
could be significant for the inland coal trade. You would no doubt be able
to find parallels in all the small marginal coalfields of small producers
succumbing to coal imports. With the specialist fields, like the anthracite
producers of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, exports continued despite
the influx of cheaper house coal, whereas the marginal producer of a similar
product in the Bideford area of North Devon soon disappeared.
Canal construction in Ireland intiated a similar effect on the small inland
coalfields there in the late 18th / early 19th century. Promoted as a means
of exporting coal they in reality carried large amounts of imported coal.
Despite that and the advent of railways some small coalfields did however
survive into the 1960s - as we know from Mike Moore's recent review of a
book on Castlecomer - and much later in the case of the remote Arigna field.
Peter
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 0831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
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