ABSTRACT
For the British coal industry the First World War was an interlude between a golden age and a time of troubles. At the same time a Royal Commission was appointed, under the chairmanship of Sir Herbert (later Lord) Samuel, to investigate the whole economic position of the coal industry and to report before the end of April, 1926, when the subsidy was due to expire. The return to the gold standard in 1925 which, as Keynes so trenchantly demonstrated, made the coal industry above all others a victim of our monetary policy was dismissed as a factor no longer 'of primary importance'. The slowness of the British coal industry to adapt itself to the changing conditions of the inter-war years led to an ever closer examination of its structure. These were the methods of monopolies, cartels and trusts which successive Governments sought to introduce into the not entirely unwilling coal industry by persuasion or compulsion.
