The districts with coal for export have been chiefly the British Isles, United States and Germany; there might be included also New South Wales, British South Africa, Japan, French Indo-China, Canada, New Zealand and Spitzbergen. China, with her large reserves, may become an exporter in the future; or, if her industries develop, may find use for her coal at home. Anthracite of good grade is found in large amounts in Pennsylvania and South Wales only. Poorer supplies are known in Germany, France, Italy, Indo-China, and also in the states of Colorado and New Mexico. Coking coals in large amounts are found in the eastern United States, Germany and the United Kingdom and are coked extensively. Smaller amounts of coke are made in France, Belgium and old Austria. Relatively very small amounts are made in Canada, Chile, New South Wales, Japan and Spain. The coal reserve of a country bears no direct relation to its present production, for the latter, which has to be developed in competition with other countries, depends upon relative facility of transportation and proximity of iron-ore deposits, which render steel making and other industries economically feasible. _Great Britain_ is particularly favored through the possession of high-grade coal immediately adjacent to coast ports, as in the North of England, Scotland and Wales. Hence Great Britain became a great exporter of coal. First, coal for heating purposes traveled by sea from Newcastle to London; next coal was carried to European ports, and finally to all parts of the world. The possession of easily worked iron deposits in the north of England and the discovery that iron could be smelted with coke rapidly accelerated the development of the coal industry in Great Britain, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century Great Britain had a commanding lead. No other country possesses high-grade coal in such quantity immediately adjacent to the coast, and this fact has enabled Great Britain to remain the great exporter. The average length of haul of export coal, from mine to ship, is less than 20 miles. In Germany coal for ocean export must be hauled 118 miles to 168 miles; in the United States from 150 to 375 miles, except for Washington coals, which are within 40 miles of tidewater, but are small in quantity and of indifferent quality. After the war with France in 1871, when _Germany_ annexed Alsace and Lorraine, the coal industry of the German Empire developed with tremendous rapidity, largely through the discovery--from the investigations of Thomas, of Great Britain--of a method of utilizing the high-phosphorus iron ores of German and French Lorraine, and the nearness of these iron-ore deposits to the high-grade bituminous coals of Westphalia. The coal industry was also developed by fostering the export trade with adjacent countries, which have small coal resources or none, this trade nearly all going by rail.