TRADE AND INDUSTRY.
39
The quantity of coal exported from Belgium in the year 1868 ■was 3,971,772 tons, as compared with 3,564,364 tons in 1867, with 3,971,772 tons in 1866, and 3,567,687 tons in 1865. Nearly the whole of the Belgian coal exports is sent to France, which took 3,818,712 tons in 1868 ; 3,442,226 tons in 1867 ; 3,818,782 tons in 1866 ; and 3,350,782 tons in 1865. The internal consumption of coal amounted in the same period to an average of nearly 8 million tons.
In Belgium the State is a great railway proprietor, and the State Railway is one of the largest sources of national revenue. It was the first irork of the kind ever undertaken by a Government, or on so great a scale by any proprietary. The act by which it was decreed passed in 1834, and in 1835 the line was opened from Brussels to Malines. In 1844, the entire length — 560 kilometres — was completed. It produced to the State a gross revenue in 1866 of 31,750,000 francs, or 1,270,000/., and a net revenue of 16,000,000 francs, or 640,000*. Other lines have been leased by the State ; and there are altogether open 1,906 kilometres, equal to 1,191 English miles, of which 748 kilometres, or 467 English miles, are in the hands of the State, and the residue worked by companies. The subjoined tabular statement shows the length of railways open in Belgium in 1869 : —
Lines built and worked by the State
„ purchased, Mons-Manage Lines belonging to Companies, but leased by the State : —
Tournai-Jurbise .... Dendre et Waes ....
Kilometres
Kilometres
558-9 32-7
47-5 109-6
{591-6 ■f 157-1
Total of State Eeseau Lines worked by Companies
i Kil.
• 1 Miles
jKil. " 1 Miles
748-7 467 1,345-2
Total lines open
2,093-9 1,301
The cost of the permanent way and buildings of the State Bail- way amounted to 18,280Z. per mile. The net revenue of the State Railway has doubled within the last 10 years, and has now risen to sum equal to 1,508Z. per mile. Nearly all the lines conceded by the Government were constructed between 1840 and 1850 by English companies. They are for the most part branch lines, and although costing less than the State Railway, which includes the principal trunk lines of the country, they produce a much smaller net revenue. The law obliges the State Railway to redeem itself with its own capital, or, in other words, to purchase itself
