TOPIC:

Recently, you cannot read a newspaper or watch a news bulletin without being warned of huge price hikes for energy following on from the Covid-19 pandemic crisis. History tells us that we do not have a monopoly on huge price rises and it is nothing new!

As you would expect any impact on supply and demand for coal would be of much concern for an industrialised Victorian Britain involved in an expensive war overseas.

From South Wales Daily News, dated 25th November 1899; p.6:

"EFFECTS ON THE COAL TRADE.

Before the outbreak of the war (says a correspondent), good coal was selling in this country for 21s per ton. The same coal is now selling at 28s per ton, a rise in a month of 7s per ton. Next week there will be a further rise. Coal is not now to be had at ordinary rates from any colliery. A coal agent informed our correspondent that he had sent down a fortnight ago 16 trucks for coal and only 7 came back. Government contracts have been the cause of this. In the Crimean War coal was in this country quoted at £4 10s per ton, and then could not be got. This war will involve a greater consumption of coal for shipping, and so a rise every week according to the coal agent, may be expected,
The price of gas will also be affected, for the rise in one kind of coal means the rise in another."

So you can only see potential hardships for the population at home in the UK just as the winter weather would begin to bite. However, I have no doubt that the mine owners would be getting fat off the profits and would not be able to get it out of the ground quickly enough!

There must have been a state of emergency in the policy of the government right from the commencement of hostilities in South Africa for them to prioritise the supply of coal for military purposes at this very early stage. It was only November, and the war was only just over a month old.
Industry was already beginning to feel the pinch if the following article reported in the South Wales Daily News, dated 27th November 1899 is anything to go by:

COULDN'T GET WELSH COAL.
AN UNSATISFACTORY EXCUSE.
"The difficulty of fighting the smoke fiend was well instanced in the case of a summons by the Hampton District Council that came before the Sunbury justices. The offender was the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company, whose chimney at Hampton had been belching forth smoke to the annoyance of the neighborhood. A conviction had already been obtained against the company for a similar nuisance, but with little permanent effect,and the Council now asked for an order of prohibition. But the Bench could not oblige the Council, which had to be content with another small fine. The company gave as an excuse for the habits of their chimney that Welsh steam coal could not be obtained in sufficient quantities because the government required so much of it. We should advise the Hampton District Council (says the Westminster Gazette) to accept no such explanation, for other companies can obtain all they need of this coal. Let them proceed with summons after summons if the nuisance continues; even the richest corporation may be made susceptible to reason, if £5 fines can be multiplied sufficiently."

So, was this a case of the water company attempting to maximize profits or was there a genuine supply issue because of the shortage of quality coal?
I would suggest a bit of both!

THE LOSS OF THE SKILLED LABOUR POOL TO THE RAND.

Another significant factor that must be taken into account when considering the pressures of supplying the war machine whilst keeping the 'homefires burning', is that of the large numbers of skilled labour who left Britain, and further afield, to seek their fortunes in the gold and diamond mines of the Rand.

When researching a recent QSA purchase of a driver for the Imperial Military Railways, I came across a passenger list for a ship bound for South Africa from Southampton, stopping at Cape Town, Algoa Bay, East London and Delagoa Bay. Please find below the details of the ship and her passengers:

The "Tintagel Castle," a ship of the Castle Line and mastered by R. Randall sailed from Southampton on the 22nd May 1897, on a 65 day voyage to South Africa.
The ship had a crew of 160 and was authorized to carry a maximum of 200 passengers.
Passengers are categorised on the ship's passenger list by name, occupation, age, and whether British, Irish or Foreign. The following passenger list pertains to this voyage:

MINER: 83
NONE: 31 ( mainly children)
ENGINEER: 8
FIREMAN :8 (railway firemen)
SIGNALMAN: 6 (railways)
WIFE: 5
BUILDER: 4
CLERK:3
PLATELAYER: 2 (railwaymen)
HOUSEMAID: 2
MAID: 2
COOK: 1
VALUER: 1
AGENT: 1

While many of the miners are from the UK, a good proportion were of Central and Eastern European stock with names like; Katz, Richter, Schossen, Manschowitz and Goldberg.
The age span of the miners, engineers and railwaymen ranged from between 26 and 45 years of age.
Men of this age group would have been of lengthy experience in their professions and the impact of their emigration would surely have been felt within the home labour pool. There must have been thousands of men who made this journey to work in the mines and run the railways in South Africa.
Add to this the number of miners of the British coalfields who enlisted in the army at the outbreak of the war and also the mobilisation of the Militias, and you can see the potential knock-on effects this could have on production.