Energy and Expansion

Abstract

Few industries can have had such a reversal of expectations in so short a time as the coal industry. In April 1956 the National Coal Board, looking at the prospects for the next ten years, could say confidently: ‘Even in the longer term, the problem of over-production for the coal industry can scarcely arise’. Over the next four years, total coal production fell 7 per cent, and coal stocks more than doubled.