Productivity, Mortality, and Technology in European and US Coal Mining, 1800–1913

European coal production underwent a period of dramatic increase from the early nineteenth century to 1913. A consensus exists, however, for a depiction of the coal industry as, to a high degree, technologically stagnant throughout the long nineteenth century. Macro-inventions, or general-purpose technologies, in fact, appeared at either end of the period. Steam power to drive water pumps and shaft elevators was introduced in the eighteenth century, while the application of mechanical power to different tasks and the electrification of mines were advances that became pervasive in the twentieth century. In the interregnum, therefore, the increase in European coal production would have mainly been the result of adding more labor rather than developing new technology. This paper aims to revise this interpretation. First, long-term series of labor productivity and fatality rates data are presented for the four main coal-producing European nations, Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Germany. Second, a link between improvements in Europe both in productivity and safety in conjunction with a series of “small-scale” technological innovations is proposed. These technologies, which emerged and diffused to affect different aspects of mining production, did not involve huge investments in labor-replacing capital. They were, for the most part, complementary to labor and closely related to questions of safety. A comparison of both estimates, labor productivity and safety, for the European countries is also established with those of the United States, a latecomer to the exploitation of coal resources.