Economic Development of the British Coal Industry 1800–1914

This book provides a full account of the economic development of the British coal industry from 1800 to the First World War. It estimates and analyses the growth in the capital employed and the labour force in British collieries; their output, costs, productivity and markets; the changes in technology; and wage bargaining and determination in the industry. Figures are given for the United Kingdom as a whole, and also for all the major coalfields and some of the minor ones. It therefore provides the most complete study available of the economic determinants of the industry and by looking at the underlying economic relationships contributes to our understanding of the factors that motivated and determined the industry's expansion.