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Path dependence, fragmented property rights and the slow diffusion of high throughput technologies in inter-war British coal mining

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  • Peter Scott

Abstract

This article examines the importance of path dependence effects in impeding the diffusion of high throughput mechanized mining systems in the British coal industry. It demonstrates that the industry had become 'locked in' to low throughput underground haulage technology, on account of institutional interrelatedness between Britain's traditional practice of extensive in-seam mining and its unique system of fragmented, privately owned mineral royalties. Fragmented royalties prevented the concentration of workings and introduction of high throughput main haulage systems that underpinned the rapid productivity growth of European producers. Meanwhile, technical interrelatedness between the haulage systems taking coal to the pit shaft and operations further 'upstream' created bottlenecks which both slowed the overall rate of mechanization and limited the productivity gains from the mechanization that did occur.

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  • Peter Scott, 2006. "Path dependence, fragmented property rights and the slow diffusion of high throughput technologies in inter-war British coal mining," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 20-42.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:48:y:2006:i:1:p:20-42
    DOI: 10.1080/00076790500204693
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Supple, Barry, 1987. "Volume 4: 1914-1946: The Political Economy of Decline," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198282945, Decembrie.
    2. Veblen, Thorstein, 1915. "Imperial Germany and The Industrial Revolution," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number veblen1915.
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    Cited by:

    1. Javier Silvestre & John E. Murray, 2023. "Determinants in the adoption of a non-labor-substitution technology: mechanical ventilation in West Virginia coal mines, 1898–1907," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 17(3), pages 467-500, September.
    2. Turnheim, Bruno & Geels, Frank W., 2012. "Regime destabilisation as the flipside of energy transitions: Lessons from the history of the British coal industry (1913–1997)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 35-49.
    3. Turnheim, Bruno & Geels, Frank W., 2013. "The destabilisation of existing regimes: Confronting a multi-dimensional framework with a case study of the British coal industry (1913–1967)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(10), pages 1749-1767.
    4. Nicholas Kyriazis & Theodore Metaxas, 2011. "Path dependence, change and the emergence of the first joint-stock companies," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 363-374.
    5. Libman, Alexander, 2008. "Democracy and growth: is the effect non-linear?," MPRA Paper 17795, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Tobias A. Jopp, 2015. "Did closures do any good? Labour productivity, mine dynamics, and rationalization in interwar Ruhr coal-mining," Working Papers 0085, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).

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