The political economy of demoralization: the state and the coalmining industry in America and Britain between the wars.

The article deals with the intervention in the U.S. and British bituminous coal industries between the World Wars. It also sheds light on the political economy of demoralization. Industrial intervention in the twentieth century has most frequently been a response to sectoral depression or decline. Governments are generally more concerned at the prospect of crisis than stability, while the structural changes which redistribute the rewards of employment and investment are felt more keenly in declining than expanding industries. This article is primarily concerned with intervention in the American and British bituminous coal industries between the World Wars. Economic stagnation, the associated pressures on coalminers and coalowners, and their consequent reactions were intimately related to attempts to reform the structure of the respective industries, and ultimately provoked important experiments in public intervention. The background to this new situation in both countries was a sharp deceleration in the growth of the world market for coal. Before 1914 the consumption of coal had been rising by about 4 per cent annually.