The History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 1: Before 1700: Towards the Age of Coal

ISBN-13: 9780198282822 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 656 str.

John Hatcher

Opis

This is the first volume which completes the definitive five-volume History of the British Coal Industry. Well before 1700 Britain had become heavily dependent upon coal for its fuel, and coal mining had taken its place among the nation's staple industries. Hatcher traces the production and trade of coal from the intermittent small-scale activity which prevailed in the Middle Ages to the rapid expansion and rising importance which characterized the early modern era. Thoroughly grounded in a formidable range of sources, the book explores the economics and management of mining, the productivity and progress of technology. Hatcher examines the owners and operators of collieries and the sources of mining capital, as well as the colliers themselves, their working conditions, and earnings. He argues that the spectacular growth of coal output in this period was achieved more through evolutionary than revolutionary processes.

Recenzje

it is an independent work of real substance, massively founded on fresh empirical research which not only reworks sources known to Nef but also greatly extends the evidential base for consideration of the nature and development of the industry ... this is not only a work of impressive scholarship but also one which is engaging and very well written ... And it is accessible, eschewing theoretical grandeur in favour of guiding the reader carefully along `the unprepossessing route of empirical evidence'. It is a model of how economic history can and should be written.