Page 142 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.
The switchback of trade in the sevonties reached, perhaps, the
highest and lowest points in the coal industry. The extraordinary
Continental demand for railways and machinery about 1871
stimulated iron and steel production, and a vastly increased demand
for coal arose from forges and furnaces as well as from chemical
works. New railways, new steamships, new engkies also cried out
for coal, and, since Britain as yet was almost the only European
producer, the supply lagged behind. The beginning of 1873
witnessed a " coal famine." From 18s. the coal of the poor went up
to 30s. and 35s. a ton. A Warwickshire coal merchant was reported
as being so besieged by orders that he had sold his last available ton
by auction, and realised 42s. 6d. The Manchester Guardian of
February 14th, 1873, printed a short leader that, with the alteration
of not more than half-a-dozen words, would have fitted perfectly the
columns of half-a-dozen London newspapers during the coal strike
of March, 1912. A Select Committee of Parliament sat in 1873 to
investigate the " famine." Since colliers' wages had risen from a
general average of about 4s. to 8s. per day, while fewer hours were
being worked, they were freely criticised. But on their side it was
urged that vastly greater sums had been received by owners and
dealers. At least two miuers' unions supported this belief by
forming co-operative mining societies, to work mines for their own
and the public benefit. In his chapter on "CoUiery Failures" Mr.
Ben Jones has recorded that, under the leadership of Mr. Burt and
Dr. Rutherford, the Northumberland miners did so; and the South
Yorkshire and North Derbyshire Miners' Association followed.
Various groups of individual miners in Scotland, Yorkshire,
Nottinghamshire, and elsewhere, sometimes with and sometimes
without the official support of strong retail co-operative societies
and the Northern Section of the Co-operative Union, also bought, at
enhanced prices, mines which, in one or two cases, the owners were
only too glad to sell. Unluckily, nearly all the companies were in
the position of backing last horses at the moment of the winners
reaching the post. The profits had been secured; the "boom"
was descending to a " slump; " and new comers in a depressed
market could be no match for old firms fortified by recent gigantic
gains. One company realised this, and disbanded without action,
paying 19s. 6d. in the £, but great sums were lost in all other cases.
Among the many efforts more or less lamely on foot were certain
ventures which sought assistance from the C.W.S. A "South
Buckley Coal and Firebrick Company," confidently promoted by
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