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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: in Scotland. Without discussing whether or not the Greeks
and Romans made use of coal, whether the Chinese worked coal
mines before the Christian era, whether the French word for coal
(HOUILLE) is really derived from the farrier Houillos, who lived
in Belgium in the twelfth century, we may affirm that the beds
in Great Britain were the first ever regularly worked.
So early as the eleventh century, William the Conqueror divided
the produce of the Newcastle bed among his companions-in-arms.
At the end of the thirteenth century, a license for the mining
of "sea coal" was granted by Henry III. Lastly, towards the end
of the same century, mention is made of the Scotch and Welsh beds.
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