COAL AND ITS CLASSIFICATION 273

a

yr

d

'S

1

k

n

3.
LS

a
i
)f

Q

r

t

J
0)

€
a

WN

J]
B

e

though in some of the Scottish fields coal seams are already
worked as thin as 14 inches; and some thin seam working
is possible as the coal and fireclay are extracted together,
the fireclay being sometimes the more valuable.
The proved coal resources of the world are 7450 milliard
metric tons, of which the United States has 3840 or 52 per
cent, The West Virginia coalfield had 115 milliard metric
tons. Germany, excluding the fields of the Saar and of
the Upper Silesia which were lost by the War, and not
counting the enormous supplies of lignite, has 285 milliard
metric tons, which is greater than that of any other European
country. Great Britain has 189 milliard tons, Poland 170,
Russia in Europe 160, France 63, Belgium 11, and the rest
of Europe 29. The remaining chief coalfields of the world
are in Australia; in China where the quantities are colossal
but incalculable; in Canada, owing to the vast western
fields of sub-bituminous coal; in India (mostly in Bengal) ;
and South Africa.
The proved coal reserves will last for many centuries.
Coal may however have a great influence in industrial redistribution.
 The difficulty in Britain is that the exhaustion
 of the more easily worked coal causes a rise in
price, while railway and canal development in other countries
is cheapening their production and enabling their mines to
enter the world's markets. Stanley Jevons in 1865 pointed
out that British industries would be hampered by a serious
rise in the cost of coal, and that prediction has been fully
justified. The average price of coal exported from Britain
advanced from 7s. 6d. in 1850 to 13s. in 1900-1904, to 25s.
14d. in 1923, and to 20s. 2d. in 1925. Witnesses before the
Coal Commission of 1925 stated that the average pithead
price of coal to the railways had increased 89 per cent. from
1913 to 1924. With the increased demand for coal and the
continued exhaustion of the more easily worked British
supplies, this rise in price will doubtless continue, until it
has again doubled and still further handicapped industries.
Other sources of energy are available, and will be more
employed as coal rises in price. Water-power is used in some
countries where there are convenient waterfalls and high
level lakes, and coal is dear; but water is usually an expensive
 source of power, while harnessing the tides, owing to the
18