[To THE EDITOR 07 THE " SPECTATOR.'l
Sin,—In the Spectator of July 18th Mr. W. F. Ecroyd writes: " Coal is as much capital as gold," and he assumes that it can- not be compared as a manufactured article with our woollen exports. I write to point out that the value of a ton of British coal which may sell at a foreign port at from twenty to twenty-five shillings is but from threepence to fivepence in the ground here ; and that the difference between the raw material in situ and the selling price is the cost of the British labour and machinery used in its manufacture and transport plus the profit. I doubt whether there are many other of our manufactured exports in which the difference between the manufactured article and its raw material is greater. It is this fond theory that manufac- tured coal is capital which seems responsible for the export Coal-tax. Thus for the sake of keeping threepence or five- pence in the bowels of the earth some of our latter-day economists seem delighted to sacrifice a traffic of twenty shillings in wages and machinery. It is obvious that if the tax delays the winning of coal but for a short time, the capital lost in interest owing to the delayed manufacture will amount to more than the capital value of the raw material, and that from a national point of view the tendency of the tax is not to preserve our capital but to waste am, Sir, &c.,
SEBASTIAN MEYER.
Brackenitill, St. George's Place, York
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