THE COAL TRADE AND PROTECTION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
ffirt,--In your article on Imperial Fiscal Policy you state that the Coal Trade cannot be helped by Protection. It seems impossible to believe this when one considers that, of the many manufactured imports at present entering this country from abroad, there can be few which have not involved in their manufacture the use of mechanical power, and very often some degree of heat also, both the power and heat being very probably derived from coal.
In the case of such imports as iron and steel, glass, and pottery, to take a few examples only, manufacturing pro- cesses are essentially heat processes, and our large imports of these materials represent yearly an invisible import of many hundred thousands of tons of coal. If these goods were made in this country their manufacture would greatly increase the demand for British coal, and presumably the cost of coal production would be greatly reduced through the increased output, while unemployment in the mining industries would be lessened. The fact that we do not actually import coal frosts abroad to burn in this country is no reason for supposing that the Coal Trade could not be helped by a tariff on suitable foreign manufactured goods.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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