Coal Mines Act 1930
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to provide for regulating and facilitating the production, supply and sale of coal by owners of coal mines; for the temporary amendment of section three of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, 1908; for the constitution and functions of a Coal Mines National Industrial Board; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 34 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 1 August 1930 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 |
Status: Repealed | |
The Coal Mines Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 34) was an act of Parliament which introduced a system of quotas in the coal mining industry of Great Britain. It was a major achievement of the Labour Party, which revoked the eight hour day that had been enacted in 1926, replacing it with a 7 1⁄2 hour day. Mine owners were allowed to fix quotas and minimum prices. Theoretically, the new commission was to plan to close less-efficient pits, but it was not effective. Historian A. J. P. Taylor says that:
- on the contrary, the act protected the inefficient. It operated restriction and stable prices at the expense of the consumer. Here was the pattern for British capitalism in the thirties.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ Taylor, A. J. P. (1965). English History 1914-1945. p. 279.
Further reading
[edit]- Fine, Ben. "Economies of scale and a featherbedding cartel?: a reconsideration of the interwar British coal industry." Economic History Review 43.3 (1990): 438–449.
- Kirby, M. W. "The Genesis of the Coal Mines Act of 1930." in Kirby, The British Coalmining Industry, 1870–1946 (Macmillan Education UK, 1977) pp. 124–137.
- Lucas, Arthur F. "A British Experiment in the Control of Competition: The Coal Mines Act of 1930." Quarterly Journal of Economics (1934): 418–441. in JSTOR
- Prest, Wilfred. "The British Coal Mines Act of 1930, Another Interpretation." Quarterly Journal of Economics (1936): 313–332. in JSTOR
- Supple, Barry. The History of the British Coal Industry: Volume 4: 1913-1946: The Political Economy of Decline (1988) excerpt and text search
