ABSTRACT
Authority relations varied significantly both between and within the mining regions. Company paternalism was most developed by the Lothian Coal Company and this firm employed almost a quarter of the miners in Mid and East Lothian by 1927. What is of interest are the ways in which authority relations developed over time and under what historical conditions they broke down. In addressing these questions, this chapter discusses two topics of relevance to the analysis of trade unions and politics: first, the extent of employer paternalism and social coercion; and second, policing and public order. Maintaining public order during major strikes in Lanarkshire in the earlier part of the nineteenth century was a serious problem for the civil, and on occasion the military, authorities. In Lanarkshire, class relations in the Larkhall district were also more constrained by company loyalty for much of the period.
