ABSTRACT
This chapter concentrates on the particular contractual relationship between the estate and wage labourers in the coalmines. Through the accounting records it explores the system of labour control. The chapter investigates the method for fixing rates and their responsiveness to market conditions. Customary understandings between miner and employer about what constituted a reasonable day's stint were also significant, as well as supervision of the workings by the overmen and the estate's viewers. Supervision was necessary not just to ensure proper quality of the workings, but to verify the size and quality of the output and to prevent coals and equipment being stolen. Individual absenteeism could also depress average production, although Levine and Wrightson found it was not that common at Gibside. Returning to the table, George Foster worked for just the four days in the 1751 pay, producing only small quantities.
