The Pennsylvania anthracite coal industry, 1860-1902 : economic cycles, business decision-making and regional dynamics / R.G. Healey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Healey, Richard G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Anthracite coal industry--Pennsylvania--History.

Anthracite coal industry.

History.

Pennsylvania.

Physical Description:

xviii, 512 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 28 cm

Place of Publication:

Scranton : University of Scranton Press, [2007]

Summary:

"The Pennsylvanian Anthracite Coal Industry" is the definitive book on America's most famous and important anthracite coal region. In his comprehensive analysis of the development of the anthracite coal industry from the onset of the American Civil War to the "Great Strike" of 1902, Richard G. Healey synthesizes data about the region's fifty most significant mines to place coal mining in the context of both the U.S. and the Pennsylvania economies. At the same time, he tells of the human side of mining, from details of the lives of immigrant miners to deadly mine disasters. The importance of the coal industry to America's economic growth in the nineteenth century cannot be overstated, and with this book, Richard G. Healey has deftly and illuminated this essential period of American history.

Contents:

Introduction

Recurrent and non-recurrent economic fluctuations at the national level

Constraints on business decision-making-the impact of geology, topography and mining technology

Prior investment in mining and transportation infrastructure

Railroad expansion and corporate control I: network development strategies and the articulation of the anthracite distribution region in interior markets

Railroad expansion and corporate control II: tidewater markets, trunk line connections and comparative economic performance

Waxing and waning markets I: sectoral shifts in the use of anthracite

Waxing and waning markets II: the changing geography of market power

Waxing and waning markets III : regional shifts, price behaviour and the changing size composition of anthracite production

Corporations, competition and the rise of the cartels I : precursors and pre-disposing factors to industry-wide combination

Corporations, competition and the rise of the cartels II: the 1873 combination and its successors

Developing and managing the coal estate

Region building I: financing development in the mining economy

Region building II: investment in new mining and railroad capacity

Regional retrenchment: rationalization and reorganisation in the Schuylkill region 1872-1902

Regional dynamics, disequilibrium tendencies and regional economic development

Notes for chapters 1-16

Preface to bibliography.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 485-500) and index.

ISBN:

9781589661509

1589661508

OCLC:

123539595