Selling, carrying, bringing, or taking coal(s) to Newcastle is an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...

of British origin describing a pointless action."Newcastle upon Tyne"
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' It refers to the fact that historically, the

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

in north-eastern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

was heavily dependent on the distribution and sale of

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

and therefore any attempt to sell coal to Newcastle would be foolhardy as

supply Supply may refer to: *The amount of a resource that is available **Supply (economics), the amount of a product which is available to customers **Materiel, the goods and equipment for a military unit to fulfill its mission *Supply, as in confidenc ...

would be greater there than anywhere else in Britain.

History

The phrase "To carry Coals to Newcastle" is first documented in North America in 1679 in William Fitzhugh's letters ("But relating farther to you would be carrying Coals to new Castle") and first appears in a printed title in ''Labour in Vain: Or Coals to Newcastle: A Sermon to the People of Queen-Hith, 1709''. Thus, the expression predates the 1854 great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead by nearly two centuries and is not morbid humor in response to the fire. In 1661-2, John Graunt, in his work on the Bills of Mortality for London (published by the Royal Society 1665), uses the phrase in his introductory expression of gratitude to Lord John Roberts, the Lord Privy Seal: '...I should (according to our English Proverb) thereby carry Coals to Newcastle ...', and suggests a much earlier provenance.

Timothy Dexter Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1747 – October 23, 1806) was an American businessman noted for his writing and eccentricity. Biography Dexter was born in Malden in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. He had little schooling and dropped out of sch ...

, an American entrepreneur, purportedly succeeded in defying the idiom in the 18th century by shipping coal to Newcastle. Renowned for his eccentricity and regarded as a buffoon, he was persuaded to sail a shipment of coal to Newcastle by rival merchants plotting to ruin him. He wrote that he instead got a large profit after his cargo arrived during a

miners' strike Miners' strikes are when miners conduct strike actions. See also *List of strikes References {{Reflist Miners A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two s ...

which had crippled local production. More prosaically, the American National Coal Association asserted that the United States profitably sold coal to Newcastle in the early 1990s,"U.S. Beats The Price Of Coal In Newcastle"
William Flannery, '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', May 10, 1990 and 70,000 tonnes of low-

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

coal was imported by

Alcan Alcan was a Canadian mining company and aluminum manufacturer. It was founded in 1902 as the Northern Aluminum Company, renamed Aluminum Company of Canada in 1925, and Alcan Aluminum in 1966. It took the name Alcan Incorporated in 2001. During t ...

from Russia in 2004 for their local

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

plant. Although the coal industry of Newcastle upon Tyne is now practically non-existent, the expression can still be used today with a degree of literal accuracy, since the harbour of Newcastle in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

(named for Newcastle in the UK after abundant coal deposits were discovered there and exploited by early European settlers) has succeeded its UK namesake by becoming the largest exporter of coal in the modern world.

Contemporary use

With the increasing onset of

globalisation Globalization, or globalisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term ''globalization'' first appeared in the early 20t ...

, parallels in other industries occur, and the idiom is now frequently used by the media when reporting business ventures whose success may initially appear just as unlikely. It has been referred to in coverage of the export to India of

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma (botany), stigma and stigma (botany)#style, styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly ...

from Saudi Arabia and

chicken tikka masala Chicken tikka masala is a South Asian dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken chunks ( chicken tikka) in a spiced sauce. The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The dish was popularised by cooks from South Asia living in Great B ...

from the United Kingdom,"The Next Asian Journey: Shadows of Old Araby"
''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'', vol.158, no.7/8, August 20, 2001"Chicken tikka masala: Spice and easy does it"
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

'', April 20, 2001 the sale of Scottish

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, on ...

s to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

,"Selling coals to Newcastle? How about pizzas to Italy? Cosmo Pasta Co. to sell gluten-free pizzas in Italy"
'Nation's Restaurant News'', July 7, 2003 and the production of

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

versions of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

."Putting the art in the wherefore art", ''

Cambridge Evening News The ''Cambridge News'' (formerly the ''Cambridge Evening News'') is a British daily newspaper. Published each weekday and on Saturdays, it is distributed from its Waterbeach base. In the period December 2010 – June 2011 it had an average dai ...

'', May 2, 2007 Even though its original geographic origin may have been displaced, this

cliché A cliché ( or ) is an element of an artistic work, saying, or idea that has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, even to the point of being weird or irritating, especially when at some earlier time it was consi ...

continues to be used.

References

{{reflist, 30em Culture in Newcastle upon Tyne British English idioms History of Newcastle upon Tyne