ABSTRACT
The sharp decline in trade at the end of 1920 soon brought more difficulties. The fall in output during the four weeks ending 22 January, 1921, after adjustments had been made for the Christmas and New Year holidays, led to a reduction in wages of 2s. a shift in February. On 23rd February Horne told the miners’ leaders that the Government had decided ‘to decontrol the coal trade absolutely as at the 31st March’. Smillie pointed out that both the owners and the miners had expected that government control would last until the end of August and that the Government’s hasty decision to decontrol the mines was a breach of the pledge given in 1920 when special legislation had been introduced to prolong the war-time control. Both the coal-owners and the M.F.G.B. were anxious to simplify this complex system by consolidating wage rates up to a certain level but could not agree on how it was to be done.
