ABSTRACT
Macmillan's analysis soon struck a chord with many mineworkers. This chapter examines three aspects of the nationalised coal industry. The first section examines the consultation system and argues that it should be seen as a type of sectoral corporatism whose purpose was to prevent conflict in the coal industry spilling out into the wider political system by enmeshing the workforce on a framework of rules and procedures which emphasised an ideology of cooperation. The second section explores the NCB's managerial ethos and questions the extent to which this differed significantly from private ownership. Of course, there were major improvements and significant differences between the two forms of ownership but the overall situation remained one of mineworker and union subordination. The third section explores the nature of government control over the price of coal. That the NCB was clearly not a private sector company is shown by its failure to exploit its market power and that it was forbidden by law to make profits. These differences are of secondary importance as the NCB's purpose was to support the wider rate of profit by subsidising industry's energy costs.
