COAL-MINING 
527 
preparing the materials, had been resented by the landed AD. 1639 
interest; but the proprietors in certain districts gained iron man. 
enormously through the development which occurred in the Longe 2 
. mutate 
later part of the eighteenth century. The success of the the coal 
oes y . trade. 
Darbys, in utilising coal instead of wood for the smelting and “** 
manufacture of iron, not only gave a new impulse to that 
trade, but caused an immense increase of coal-mining, and 
occasioned the introduction of better facilities for internal 
intercourse. The coal trade had been growing, but was still 
of a limited character; the only fields, which had been 
hitherto worked on a large scale!, were those of Newcastle, 
as the product of these mines could be easily shipped. 
Throughout the seventeenth century there had been a con- 000k ed 
siderable and growing export trade. Much of the traffic was to growing 
foreign parts®, but a very large trade with London® was also og Tae 
springing up. The city had come to rely so much on this Nabe 
supply of fuel, as to feel considerable inconvenience from the 
interruption of the coaling trade which occurred during the 
Civil War*, There was some uncertainty, even under ordinary 
circumstances, since the heavily laden colliers® were greatly 
exposed to storm. Defoe tells a story of more than two 
hundred sail of vessels, mostly colliers, with a thousand lives, 
which were lost in one storm off the Norfolk coasts, The 
vessels were also in danger of attack from pirates’. We hear 
of other difficulties, many of which were due to the action of 
the Hostmen of Newecastle®; this fraternity had been incor- 
porated by Queen Elizabeth, for the loading and disposing of 
pit coals upon the Tyne’. The exclusive privileges of these 
1 Mining on a small scale had been carried on in Yorkshire from time im- 
memorial. The Halifax coal-field is mentioned in the Wakefield Court Rolls in 
1308. For many references to Yorkshire mining, see Mr Lister's article in Old 
Yorkshire, mw. series, edited by Wheater (1885), p. 269. On the arrangements 
made for the purchase and supply of coal in Dublin, see Gross, Gild Merchant, 
I. 137, oo. 66 f. 2 Reports, 1871, Xvi. 826. 
8 Petty writes of the consumption of coal in houses as a new thing. Political 
Arithmetic (1699), p. 259; Macpherson, mm. 580. 
4 See coale, Charcoale and Small coale (1643), quoted in Reports, 1871, xvrm. 826. 
3 These belonged partly to Newcastle Merchants and partly to those of Lynn 
(Defoe, Tour (1748), 1. 76), and of Yarmouth (4b. 1. 66). 
8 Defoe, Tour, 1. 71. 
1 Commons Journals, X. p. 491, 2 Dec. 1690; Brand, Newcastle, mm. 300. 
® For complaints in 1604, see Rep, Hist. MSS. Comm. v1. Ap. 311. 
3 Brand. x. 271.