So that practically the real quantity to be sold is fixed with reference to each colliery each month?
Yes. The basis originally fixed, is the proportion taken between all the collieries?
It is merely an imaginary quantity to fix the relative proportions.
Has the scale of prices now in operation been varied materially from that which was adopted when the regulation of the vend was last on?
I have already stated in my evidence that ours is a competition price, that we endeavour to get the best price we can, which is a little below what the consumer can get the same article for elsewhere. In the regulation in 1828 we found we had fixed our prices too high; the consequence was, it created an immediate influx of coals from Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire, and more especially from Stockton; so that when the coal-owners met together, to enter into another arrangement last year, we were obliged to fix our prices a little lower.
[317] The fitters or agents between coal-owners and ship-owners.
[318] The name by which the agreements as to output were known.
[319] Report from Committee on the Coal Trade, 1830 (VIII), p. 6.
[320] Ibid. pp. 254-5.
8. The Old Apprenticeship System in the Woollen Industry [Report of Committee on the Woollen Industry, 1806 (III), p. 5], 1806.