Emil Lederer: Discussion Contribution on Coal Mining (1920)

This recorded commission speaking turn addresses the regulation of coal output through a distinction between production ceilings and compulsory production targets. Lederer begins with the coal syndicate’s practice during periods of strong demand: output was not restricted when all coal could be sold at prevailing prices. His argument then turns from this market situation to the precise meaning of allocating production among individual mines.

Hingegen in solchen Perioden, in welchen eine Begrenzung der Produktion erfolgt, da handelt es sich darum, nach den Beteiligungsziffern jedem Werk die Menge, welche es fördern kann und fördern darf, vorzuschreiben, während die Bestimmung der Fördermenge eine Bestimmung dessen wäre, was jedes Werk fördern muß.

English translation: By contrast, in periods in which production is restricted, the point is to prescribe to each mine, according to its participation figures, the quantity it can and may extract, whereas determining the output quantity would mean determining what each mine must extract.

The conceptual hinge is the difference between what a mine may produce and what it must produce. Participation figures distribute permissible output when production is restricted; they need not impose an obligation to deliver a specified quantity. Lederer explicitly rejects that compulsory interpretation. His objection nevertheless leaves room for an aggregate ceiling:

Es kann auch in Zukunft einmal die Situation eintreten, daß die Förderung in einer gewissen Weise begrenzt werden muß, sagen wir auf 50 Millionen Tonnen.

English translation: A situation may also arise in the future in which output must be restricted in some way, let us say to 50 million tonnes.

The figure is illustrative, not a proposed target. The intervention’s significance lies in separating collective restriction from compulsory mine-level output: accepting a limit on total extraction does not, for Lederer, entail requiring each mine to produce a fixed amount.