I now come to the class called Coalmeters. These, though belonging to
the class of “clerks,” rather than labourers, still form so important a
link in the chain, that I think it best to give a description of their
duty here.
The coalmeters weigh the coals on board ship. They are employed by
a committee of coalfactors and coalmerchants--nine factors and nine
merchants forming such committee. The committee is elected by the
trade. They go out every year, and consequently two new members are
elected annually. They have the entire patronage of the meter’s office.
No person can be an official coalmeter without being appointed by the
coal-committee. There were formerly several bye-meters, chosen by the
merchants from among their own men, as they pleased. This practice
has been greatly diminished since April last. The office of the
coalmeter is to weigh out the ship’s cargo, as a middle-man between
the factor and the merchant. The cargo is consigned by the pit-owner
or the shipowner to the coalfactor. The number of coalfactors is
about twenty-five. These men dispose of all the coals that are sold
in London. As soon as the ship arrives at Gravesend, her papers are
transmitted to an office appointed for that purpose, and the factor
then proceeds to the Coal Exchange to sell them. Here the merchants and
the factors assemble three times a-week. The purchasers are divided
into large and small buyers. Large buyers consist of the higher class
coalmerchants, and they will sometimes buy as many as three or four
thousand tons in a-day. The small buyers only purchase by multiples
of seven--either fourteen, twenty-one, or twenty-eight tons, as they
please. The rule of the market is, that the buyers pay one half of the
purchase-money the first market-day after the ship is cleared, and for
the remainder a bill at six weeks is given. After the ship is sold she
is admitted from the Section into the Pool, and a meter is appointed
to her from the coalmeter’s office. This office is maintained by the
committee of factors and merchants, and the masters appointed by them
are registered there. According as a fresh ship is sold, the next meter
in rotation is sent down to her. There are in all 170 official meters,
divided into three classes, called respectively “placemen,” “extra
men,” and “supernumeraries.” The placeman has the preference of the
work. If there is more than the placeman can do the extra man takes
it, and if both classes are occupied then the supernumerary steps in.
Should the earnings of the latter class not amount to 25_s._ weekly,
that sum is made up to them. Before “breaking bulk,” that is, before
beginning to work the cargo of the ship, the City dues must, under a
penalty, be paid by the factor. These amount to 1_s._ 1_d._ per ton.
The 1_s._ goes to the City, and the 1_d._ to the Government. Formerly
the whole of the dues went to the City, but within a short period the
odd 1_d._ has been claimed by Government. The coal dues form one of the
principal revenues of the city. The dues are collected by the clerk of
the Coal Exchange. All the harbour dues and light dues are paid by the
shipowner. After the City dues have been paid, the meter receives his
papers and goes on board to deliver the cargo, and see that each buyer
registered on the paper gets his proper complement. The meter’s hours
of attendance are from seven to four in winter, and from seven to five
in summer. The meter has to wait on board the ship until such time as
the purchasers send craft to receive their coals. He then weighs them
previously to their delivery into the barge. There are eight weighs to
the ton. The rate of payment to the meter is 1-1/2_d._ per ton, and the
merchant is compelled to deliver the cargo at the rate of forty-nine
tons per day, making the meter’s wages amount to 6_s._ 1-1/2_d._ per
day. “If there is a necessity or demand for more coals, we can do
double that amount of work. On the shortest day in the year we can do
ninety-eight tons.” One whom I saw said, “I myself have done 112 tons
to-day. That would make my earnings to-day 15_s._, but as I did nothing
on Saturday, of course that reduces them one half.”
[Illustration: COAL-PORTERS FILLING WAGGONS AT COAL-WHARF.
[_From a Sketch._]]
Upon an average, a place-meter is employed about five days in the
week. An extra meter is employed about four days in the week, and a
supernumerary about half his time, but he has always his 25_s._ weekly
secured to him, whether employed or not. Two pounds a-week would be a
very fair average for the wages of a place-meter, since the reduction
on the 1st of April. Many declare they don’t earn 36_s._ a-week, but
many do more. The extra man gets very nearly the same money as the
place-man, under the present arrangement. The supernumerary generally
makes his 30_s._ weekly. As the system at present stands, the earnings
of the meters generally are not so much as those of superior mechanics.
It is an office requiring interest to obtain it: a man must be of known
integrity; thousands and thousands of pounds of property pass through
his hands, and he is the man appointed to see justice between factor
and merchant. Before the Act directing all coals to be sold by weight,
the meter measured them in a vat, holding a quarter of a chaldron.
In those days a first-class meter could reckon upon an income of from
400_l._ to 500_l._ a-year, and the lowest salary was not under 300_l._
per annum. The meter’s office was then entirely a city appointment, and
none but those of considerable influence could obtain it. This system
was altered eighteen years ago, when the meter’s office was placed in
the hands of a committee of coalfactors and coalmerchants. Immediately
after this time the salaries decreased. The committee first agreed to
pay the meters at the rate of 2_d._ per ton, undertaking that that
sum should produce the place-meter an income of 120_l._ One gentleman
assured me that he never exceeded 114_l._, but then he was one of the
juniors. Under the old system the meters were paid at a rate that would
have been equivalent to 3_d._ a ton under the present one. In the year
1831 the salary was reduced to 2_d._, and on the 1st of April in the
present year, the payment has again been cut down to 1-1/2_d._ per
ton. Besides this, the certificate money, which was 2_s._ per ship,
and generally amounted to 30_s._ per quarter, was entirely disallowed,
making the total last reduction of their wages amount to full 30 per
cent. No corresponding reduction has taken place in the price of coals
to the consumer. At the same time the price of whipping has been
reduced 1_d._ per ton, so that, within the last year, the combined
factors and merchants have lowered the price of delivery 1-1/2_d._ per
ton, and they (the merchants and factors) have been the sole gainers
thereby. This has been done, too, while the demand for coals has been
increasing every year. Now, according to the returns of the clerk of
the Coal Exchange, there were 3,418,340 tons of coals delivered in
the port of London in the year 1848, and assuming the amount to have
remained the same in the present year, it follows that the factors and
merchants have gained no less than 21,364_l._ 12_s._ 6_d._ per annum,
and that out of the earnings of the meters and the whippers.
The coalwhippers, already described, whip the coals by means of a
basket and tackle from the hold to the deck of the ship. The coalmeters
weigh the coals when so whipped from the hold, previously to their
being delivered into the barge alongside. The “coalbacker” properly
carries the coals in sacks upon his back from the barges, when they
have reached the premises of the coal-merchants, on to the wharfs.
* * * * *