ABSTRACT
TOWARDS the close of Chapter XII . of this history the readerwas warned of the importance likely to be assumed in the future by a certain " Coal Traffic Agreement," which we then saw made by Mr. Allport on behalf of the Midland Company, and Mr. Walter Leith on behalf of the Great Northern (23 January, 1863). The occasion of this agreement, it will be remembered, was the admission of the Great Northern via Nottingham into the Derbyshire coalfield, and its main principle was that the two companies, now that they were both to be carriers from the two coalfields from which the rail-borne supply of the Metropolis was principally drawn, should not only charge equal rates from the same collieries to all competitive points, but should so regulate these rates that the charge from one colliery should be "equitably adjusted" to the charge from another. The rates, it was further agreed, were to be based, as far as their calculation by mileage went, on the shortest railway route from each colliery; but the provision as to " equitable adjustment " meant that the strict mileage principle was not to be pushed so far as to exclude the more distant pits, or the more distant coalfield, entirely from a market. On the other hand, it meant also-in the view of Mr. Allport at least-that geographical superiority was to be given an " equitable " value-that it was to be taken into consideration along with other natural advantages which the various collieries might possess.
