Causes which will lead to a reduction in price of coal.
The present unprecedented prosperity may continue for a year or two years at the most, but, at the end of that time, the influx of capital into the coal trade, attracted by the present high profits, will infallibly lead to some reduction of price. New coal pits are being sunk. Old pits are being improved. More workmen are being trained in the business of mining. Hence we may look with confidence to an augmentation of the output, and to a sufficient supply for the ordinary demands of consumers. The insufficient profits of former days cannot be attributed to the unreasonable standard at which wages were maintained. The excessive competition in the supply of coal was the true cause of the unfortunate position of the trade. And as in the former period of depression, so in the sudden and it may be short-lived prosperity of the present day, the rates of wages must be regarded, not as a cause, but as a consequence, of an abnormal position of affairs.