The Spa Agreement supplied a temporary palliative of the anomalous conditions governing the _price_ at which these coal deliveries are credited to Germany. But with the termination of this Agreement they again require attention. Under the Treaty Germany is credited in the case of coal delivered _overland_ with “the German pithead price to German nationals” plus the freight to the frontier; and in the case of coal delivered _by sea_ with the export price; provided in each case this price is not in excess of the British export price. Now for various internal reasons the German Government have thought fit to maintain the pithead price to German nationals far below the world price, with the result that she gets credited with much less than its real value for her deliveries of Reparation coal. During the year ending June 1921 the average legal maximum price of the different kinds of coal was about 270 marks a ton, inclusive of a tax of 20 per cent on the price,[23] which at the exchange then prevailing was about 20s., _i.e._, between a third and a half of the British price at that date. The fall in the mark exchange in the autumn of 1921 increased the discrepancy. For although the price of German coal was substantially increased in terms of paper marks, and although the price of British coal had fallen sharply, the movements of exchange so out–distanced the other factors, that in November 1921 the price of British coal worked out at about three and half times the price of the best bituminous coal from the Ruhr. Thus not only were the German iron–masters placed in an advantageous position for competing with British producers, but the Belgian and French industries also benefited artificially through the receipt by their Governments of very low–priced coal. The German Government is in rather a dilemma in this matter. An increase in the coal tax is one of the most obvious sources for an increased revenue, and such a tax would be, from the standpoint of the exchequer, twice blessed, since it would increase correspondingly the Reparation credits. But on the other hand, such a proposal unites two groups against them, the industrialists, who want cheap coal for industry and the Socialists who want cheap coal for the domestic stove. From the revenue standpoint the tax would probably stand an increase from 20 per cent to 60 per cent; but from the political standpoint an increase from 20 per cent to 30 per cent is the highest contemplated at present, with a differential price in favor of domestic consumers.[24] I take this opportunity of making a few corrections or amplifications of the passages in _The Economic Consequences of the Peace_ which deal with coal.