The Rise of the British Coal Industry

The Rise of the British Coal Industry PDF

Author: J. U. Nef

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 1136235299

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Originally published in 1966, this is Volume II which is a straightforward account of the British nationalized coal industry in the first half of the twentieth century. This volume contains parts 4 on Coal and Capitalism to Part five on Coal and Public Policy.

What’s Left of Marxism

What’s Left of Marxism PDF

Author: Benjamin Zachariah

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-09-21

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 3110677741

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Have Marxian ideas been relevant or influential in the writing and interpretation of history? What are the Marxist legacies that are now re-emerging in present-day histories? This volume is an attempt at relearning what the “discipline” of history once knew – whether one considered oneself a Marxist, a non-Marxist or an anti-Marxist.

Managing Industrial Decline

Managing Industrial Decline PDF

Author: Michael Dintenfass

Publisher: Ohio State University Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0814205690

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Managing Industrial Decline examines the dramatic decline of the British coal industry through the lens of comparative business history, challenging the prevailing belief that the industry's decline was due primarily to global economic factors and instead demonstrating that entrepreneurial failings of individual coal firms contributed significantly to the problem. Through a comparative analysis of company histories, Dintenfass shows how the full range of business operations at British coal firms, including labor management policies, technological choices, and marketing practices, affected their performance. The histories of individual firms demonstrate that the managements could improve productivity, increase sale prices, and sustain profitability, even as the coal trade succumbed to cyclical depression and secular decline. According to Dintenfass, comparisons between the individual firms and the regional coal industries to which they belonged show that neighboring firms were slow to introduce the modest innovations that the successful firms pioneered. Since there were few barriers to the implementation of these strategies, it appears that Britain's coal masters miscalculated their costs and benefits, contributing to the problem by failing to adopt inexpensive and accessible second-best solutions to production and commercial problems. Managing Industrial Decline, breaks new ground in the field of business history and restores entrepreneurship to its proper place in the analysis of industrial decline.

A Theory of Economic Systems

A Theory of Economic Systems PDF

Author: Manuel Gottlieb

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2013-09-25

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13: 1483265897

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A Theory of Economic Systems is a systematic inquiry into the nature of historical economic systems, their relationships to each other, their peripheral areas, and the ways in which they and their components have evolved over time. Topics covered include modes of production; coordination of resource use; functions of the state in the economy; and the institutions of money and property. Comprised of nine chapters, this book begins with a brief introduction to the frame of reference; basic definitions of the terms used in economic systems; methodological issues; and the bounds of the inquiry. The next chapters are devoted to modes of production or forms of productive organization. Ten distinct modes of production are identified, with different modes sometimes dominant in different fields of economic activity (agriculture, industry, wholesale trade, urban services, etc.). The way the use of economic resources is coordinated both within and between modes is considered, with particular reference to markets, rationing, and central planning. Subsequent chapters focus on the role of the state and the public economy in economic systems; money and property; the ways in which separate economic systems may be drawn into meaningful multinational gestalts or orders; and problems of system classification. The book concludes by listing eight broad family types of systems into which most, if not all, historically experienced systems may fit. This monograph should appeal to social scientists in varied fields of specialization such as geography, sociology, economic history, political science, and economics.

The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries PDF

Author: Ralph Davis

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Published: 2017-10-18

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 1786948877

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This volume is a reprint of Ralph Davis’ seminal 1962 book, The Rise of the English Shipping Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. The aim was to examine the economic reasons for the growth of British shipping before the arrival of modern technology, with a particular attention on overseas trade. The study can roughly be divided into two halves. The first is an in-depth exploration the roles within the shipping industry, from shipbuilders and shipowners to seamen and masters, from an economic perspective. The second is a chapter-by-chapter review of British overseas trade with Northern Europe, Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, East India, and America and the West Indies. The final two chapters diverge from the main sections, and focus on the interplay between government, war, and shipping. Davis attaches no extra significance to any particular nation or role, and offers an even-handed approach to maritime history still considered rare in the present day. Costs, profits, voyage estimates, ship-prices, and earnings all come under close and equal scrutiny as Davis seeks to understand the trades and developments in shipping during the period. To conclude, he places the study into a broader historical context and discovers that shipping played a measured but crucial role in the development of industrialisation and English economic development. This edition includes an introduction by the series editor; Davis’ introduction and preface; seventeen analytical chapters; a concluding chapter; two appendices concerning shipping statistics and sources; and a comprehensive index.

The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1

The Invention of the White Race, Volume 1 PDF

Author: Theodore W. Allen

Publisher: Verso Books

Published: 2014-04-29

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 1781689695

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When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no "white" people there. Nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. In this seminal two-volume work, The Invention of the White Race, Theodore W. Allen tells the story of how America's ruling classes created the category of the "white race" as a means of social control. Since that early invention, white privileges have enforced the myth of racial superiority, and that fact has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over ordinary working people of all colors throughout American history. Volume I draws lessons from Irish history, comparing British rule in Ireland with the "white" oppression of Native Americans and African Americans. Allen details how Irish immigrants fleeing persecution learned to spread racial oppression in their adoptive country as part of white America. Since publication in the mid-nineties, The Invention of the White Race has become indispensable in debates on the origins of racial oppression in America. In this updated edition, scholar Jeffrey B. Perry provides a new introduction, a short biography of the author and a study guide.

Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer

Industrial Espionage and Technology Transfer PDF

Author: John R. Harris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-07-05

Total Pages: 578

ISBN-13: 1351927760

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Britain and France were the leading industrial nations in 18th-century Europe. This book examines the rivalry which existed between the two nations and the methods used by France to obtain the skilled manpower and technology which had given Britain the edge - particularly in the new coal-based technologies. Despite the British Act of 1719 which outlawed industrial espionage and technology transfer, France continued to bring key industrial workers from Britain and to acquire British machinery and production methods. Drawing on a mass of unpublished archival material, this book investigates the nature and application of British laws and the involvement of some major British industrialists in these issues, and discusses the extent to which French espionage had any real success. In the process it presents an in-depth understanding of 18th-century economies, and the cultures and bureaucracies which were so important in shaping economic life. Above all, the late John Harris saw the history of industrial espionage as ’one means of restoring the thoughts and activities of human beings to the centre stage of industrial history’. These are the stories of individuals - Holkers, Trudaines, Wilkinsons, or Milnes - and their impact on the world.

New Energies

New Energies PDF

Author: Stephen G. Gross

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press

Published: 2023-02-28

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 0822989883

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Over the past 250 years, energy transitions have occurred repeatedly—the rise of coal in the nineteenth century, the explosion of oil in the twentieth century, the nuclear utopianism of the 1950s and 1960s. These transitions have been as revolutionary as any political or economic upheaval, and they required changes in infrastructure and behavior. Yet new energies never wholly replace old ones. This volume historicizes energy production and consumption while demonstrating how energy use has reshaped everything from social life and economic organization to political governance. It foregrounds the importance of energy for big historical questions about capitalism, democracy, inequality, the environment, and identity, and it argues that energy systems themselves merit attention as key agents of historical change. Given the urgency of climate change, and the central position that energy plays in causing and potentially solving global warming, this volume engages history as a discipline in the debate over what may be most monumental energy transition of all time: the shift away from fossil fuels.