Article on the coal trade by John Rushton
The traffic in coal was increasing dramatically. Queen Elizabeth had incorporated the Newcastle
hostmen, who had the monopoly right to move coal from
shore to ship. Scarborough apparently had no ships
in the coal trade at the opening of the century but
in 1612 carried 25 cargoes out of Newcastle .The
number of shipments continued to grow.
Scarborough's future was among the great ports
trading coal. Much coal was brought in and taken on
to London, Rotterdam and Calais, Leonard Harrison sold
eleven chalders of sea coal in London in 1626 at
fourteen shillings the chalder. They claimed he lay
drunk at Sunderland for three days together and so
they lost voyages.
A petition of owners, masters and mariners trading
coal in 1637 complained of the Newcastle hostmen, of
bad coals, unjust coal measures, unreasonable prices
and of those few who were engrossing the coal trade
to Newcastle, trying to get the entire selling and
delivering of coals into their own hands, to vend at
their own prices. They agreed to offer the King 12d a
chalder, measured 21 bolls to the chalder, and offered
price guarantees for London ,if they had a free market
.The struggles between the hostmen, the shippers and
the London buyers would recurr. In 1637 masters and
owners in the coal trade petitioned the privy council
Scarbrough imported 3323 chaldrons of coal in 1639
, only 238 from Newcastle and most of the rest from
Sunderland. Local use within the port would grow
,with coal replacing Stainton Dale turf and peat as
the house fuel. Schofield said turf was the
Scarborough fuel until the time of King Charles I.
Much of the coal was re-exported . William Clarke,a
Scarborough master mariner agreed with Thomas Browne
the Sunderland merchant to ship coal to Holland,
Zealand and Flanders in 1643. Twelve men were
licenced by the Bailiffs in 1625 as horse porters
for coal and a schedule regulated their charges for
moving coals from the sands around the town. Every
house along the sands paid 8d to 10d a chalder. every
house beneath Long Greece head between 10d and a
shilling .A revised schedule for coal carriage of
3.11.1646 was 10d along sands,12d beneath long greece
head , up to 2s4d a chalder, elsewhere .
The significance of coal for Scarborough was far
broader . Every chalder shipped out of Newcastle and
Sunderland would pay duty to a Scarborough collector
and the town's ship building industry would provide
many of the collier brigs. The County Record Office
has an agreement between Scarborough Master mariner
William Clarke and Sunderland merchant Brown Thomas,
dated 13.12. 1643. He would "on the first good wind"
sail his ship from Scarborough to Sunderland and "with
all speed". Once there , at the mariner's own cost, he
would take on "a reasonable loads of coals" and " with
the next good wind sail into Holland, Zealand or
Flander and stay" eight days for unloading.
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