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- Title
Labour Productivity in the South Wales Steam-Coal Industry, 1870-1914.
- Authors
Walters, Rhodri
- Abstract
This article focuses on fluctuations in the labor productivity of coal mining in South Wales between 1870 and 1914. The portion of the South Wales coalfield with which it is primarily concerned extends from Pontypool on the eastern extremity of the coalfield to the Rhondda Fawr in the West, embracing that area famed for its bituminous house and semi-bituminous steam coals. In general, historians have tended to treat labour productivity in the national context. But by concentrating on a single coalfield, it is possible to make a closer examination of the potential sources of changes in labour productivity. Although the concept of "productiveness" of labour received increasing attention from contemporary commentators in the coalfield, the only data that can be derived from official statistics relate to output per man year of those employed above or above and below ground at South Wales collieries. Each had sufficient influence to warrant very serious and independent consideration in any discussion of labour productivity within an extractive industry such as coal-mining, even though those which were long-term determinants are relatively few.
- Subjects
LABOR productivity; LABOR economics; PERFORMANCE standards; CAPITAL productivity; COAL industry; STATISTICS
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1975, Vol 28, Issue 2, p280
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2593488