§ MR. DAVID THOMASI beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade if he can give the decrease in the total quantity of coal exported from the United States of America to Europe last year as compared with 1900, and the percentage of this decrease on total export of the latter year; and if he can state, approximately, the extent of the drop in coal freights from Baltimore or Newport News to Bordeaux or Marseilles during 1901.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE (Mr. GERALD BALFOUR, Leeds, Central)The decrease was 45,661 tons, or 7.2 per cent. I cannot state the precise amount of the fall in coal freights between the ports mentioned, during the year 1901, but the information in the possession of the Board of Trade points to a fall of about 8s. per ton in freights from Newport News to Marseilles, as between the autumn of 1900, and the autumn of 1901.