A report laid before the River Boyne Company, April 20th 1797, by Daniel Monks, engineer. To which is prefixed the resolutions of the grand jury of the County Meath, at Lent assizes 1797. 1797

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1. Dublin's poor distressed by coal price speculation and fuel deprivation

   Dublin · city · Dublin · 1797

   The report describes how coal price fluctuations, driven by unreliable sea-borne supply and market speculation by traders and forestallers, disproportionately harm Dublin's poor. Unable to afford stockpiling fuel when prices are low, thousands are forced to buy at the dearest rates and go without firing in winter when they need it most.

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   dertaking, none could equal having coals at all times at an unchangeable price; and not ſubject to the variations they are liable to on being ſupplied by ſea; where not only the elements, but the N trader abroad, and the foreſtaller at home, combine to keep up the price, to the great injury of our manufactures, and the Dublin, who are more diſtreſſed by it than can well be deſcribed;

   deareſt rate, and it falls to the lot of thou-

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   As the companion tells it

   Dublin, in 1797. A report by Daniel Monks that April said coal reached the city by sea, and the supply was never steady. The weather, traders abroad, and forestallers at home all worked to keep the price high. Dublin's poor suffered most. They could not stock fuel when it was cheap, so they bought at the dearest rate, and thousands went without firing in winter. Monks wrote that the poor were more distressed by it than can well be described.