Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/193

* GEEAT BRITAIN. 167 GREAT BRITAIN. peded the development of this process. With tho new supply of fuel, new possibilities opened up in the iron industry, and the increased use of iron ill turn created a greater demand for coal. In the later years of the eighteenth century was witnessed a constant succession of improvements — to wit. in mining, in the manufacture of iron, in internal means of conununication — all giving increased impetus to the production and use of coal and iron. The annual output of coal in the last years of the eighteenth centurj' is estimated to have e.xceeded 10.000.000 tons. The introduc- tion of the steamboat, about 1812, and of the steam railway, about 1830, not only created a new de- mand tor coal and iron, but made the domestic and foreign distribution more practicable, thus enormously extending the market for those min- erals and their products. The production of coal and iron has increased throughout the nineteenth century, tlie average annual absolute gain con- tinuing undiminished. From the table below, showing the development of mining for the last forty years, the overwhelming importance of coal and iron will be seen. No country has been comparable to Great Britain in the total product of mines. This is than coal, Great Britain fares better than it would if the status of the production of the two minerals were reversed. The above figures are for the entire United Kingdom; but since the Irish coal and iron min- ing is insignilicaut, they are materially correct for Great Britain. Over two-thirds of the entire jnoduct is mined in England, the remainder being almost equally divided between Scotland and ales. The principal productive districts, be- ginning at the north, are, the Scottish Low- lands, or the neighborhood of Glasgow, the Newcastle District, the two fields on the east and west slopes of the Pennine range in south- west Yorkshire, and to the southeastward and in eastern Lancashire, the Staffordshire fields farther south, and the South Wales field occupy- ing Glamorganshire and parts of the adjoining counties. The third of these districts produces the largest output, the yield in 1900 being: Yorkshire, 28,247,249 tons; Lancashire, 24.842,- 208; Derbyshire, 15,24.'?.031 ; and Nottingham- shire, 8.626,177. For the same year, the New- castle district produced as follows: Durham, 34,- 800.719 tons: Northumberland, 11,514.521. The yield of Scotland was: Lanarkshire, 17,174,247; YEAR Coal Iron Ore Lead Ore 1S60 Tons 81,000,000 112.000,000 149.000.000 188.000.000 228.772.886 Vahie $100,000,000 138.000,000 312, Olio. nuo 370,000.000 608.262,980 Tons 8.1.55.000 14.606,000 Is,;iJ2.000 14.(166,000 14,257.344 Value $12,334,000 24.756,000 32,929.000 19.639.000 21.122,000 Tons 90.000 99.000 73.(XI0 46.000 32,487 Value $6,183,000 1870 6 001 noo 1880 1890 2 030.000 1900 1,745.470 YEAR Tin Ore Copper Ore Clays Salt 1860 Tons 10.000 15.000 14.000 15.000 6,911 Value $3,744,000 5.011,000 3.365.0OO 3,912,000 2,618,020 Tons 240.000 108.000 52.000 12.000 9,257 Value $7,535,000 2,189.000 9.-,3.000 139.000 172,615 Tons 517.000 1,219.000 3,112.000 3,362,000 14,279.181 Value $1,105,000 2.250.000 8.178.000 4.695.000 7,855,215 Tons 1,596.000 1,270,000 2,688,000 2,182,000 1,873,001 Value $4 025 000 1870 3 43T 000 1880 5 612 000 1890 5 500 000 1900 3 059,600 all the more remarkable since it includes virtual- ly neither of the precious metals which in many other countries have constituted so large an item. Until recent years the annual output of other eovmtries was almost insignificant in comparison. In 1820 Great Britain was producing two and one-lialf times as much coal as the rest of the civilized world, and as late as 1840 it was pro- ducing more iron ore than all other countries combined. The last half-century, however, has witnessed a decided change in the relative im- portance of Great Britain's mines. Other coun- tries, notably the United States and Germany, have been developing their mined product still more rapidl.v during this period. The United States first excelled Great Britain in the latter part of the nineteenth century and is constantly increasing its lead. Great Britain's iron output was first surpassed by the United States in 1890, and its coal in 1899." In 1900 the production of coal in the United States was about one-fifth greater than in the United Kingdom. Germany now produces almost as much iron and about three-fifths as much coal. The output of the iron- mines is insufficient for British local needs; and increasing quantities, equaling in value that pro- diiced at home, are imported, chiefly from Spain; while coal for the whole period has been ex- ported in increasing quantities, the amount reach- ins 40.098.000 tons in 1900. or twice that of 1880. Iron being much more easily imported other districts, 15,937,857. Wales, nuiinly Gla- morganshire, together with Monmouthshire, pro- duced 42.000.000 tons ; while the production of Ireland was only 124,699 tons. Iron ore is obtained most abundantly in connection with the coal measures of Y'orkshire and other regions, lied hematite ores are obtained in north Derby- shire and in Cumberland. The total production of pig iron from native and imported ores in 1900 was 8,959,691 long tons. In 1900 759,900 people were employed in Great Britain in the mining of coal, the per-head out- put being 290 tons. As the depth of the mines becomes greater and the more profitable deposits approach exhaustion, greater difficulty and ex- pense will attend the mining operations. In fact, the per-head product has already begun to de- cline. The Royal Commission, reporting in 1871, claimed that if the rate of consumption and the population both increased in the future as in the past, the supply would last 270 years. The recent rapid progress made by certain other coun- tries in the same field threatens England's su- premacy in those- industries which have drawn so heavily on its coal resource^, and it is not uncommonly thought that the past rate of in- crease in the annual coal output will not be sustained and that the supply will last a much longer period than the one mentioned. In mediaeval and ancient times in Great Brit- ain, other varieties of minerals weie relatively