Reference:
"The Finest Place for a Lasting Colliery"
"Coal Mining Enterprise in Ayrshire c. 1600-1840"
a pamphlett by CA Whatley (AANHS) 1983

"Ayrshire was an overwhelmingly rural county. It was the least densely populated of Scotlan's central belt counties in 1691 ans could only boast three towns of more than 1,000 inhabitants. Of these only Ayr is likely to have contained as many as 4,000 people."

"even by the mid-17th century only one hundred or so tons (of coal) were leaving the county's shore in any one year."
By 1695 it was "something under 3,000 tons" however West Cumberland was shipping 15,000 tons about the same time.

In the 1750's the annual average was less than 10,000 tons for the whole of Ayrshire. In 1744 97% of Scottish coal sent to Ireland originated in Ayrshire.

Saltcoats seemed to be the boom coalmining area at that time. At that time only 6% of the county's coal exports ame from the Ayr area (Milnquarter and Milrig mines). Mining in areas remote from the coast was only small scale for local markets. The industry of the county at that time had little use for coal.
c 1760-1840
"This was a period of major advance for the Scottish coal mining industry."
"Ayr" .. "her share of the county's coal shipments rose from 4.22% in 1764 to 35.77% ten years later."
"It was not until the 1790's that the volume of coal shipments began to equal those which had been attained by the Forth coal exporters a century beforehand"
With the introduction of waggonways then railways and the use of "Fire Engines" to pump water the production increased rapidly in the early 19th century.

In other words the Ayrshire collieries were only just hitting their straps round about the time colliers were officially emancipated. earlier coal mining was for local use except for coastal collieries which could get better prices by exporting to Ireland. Practicaly all the export coal came from Saltcoats in the very early days and in this area the coal was also used to evaporate salt from sea-water salt pans. If there was serfdom in Ayrshire it must have been mainly the Saltcoats area.

I believe that the West Coast Miners were generally better off and more "independently minded" than their counterparts on the East Coast. this was just because there was a greater demand for their services. Their lot was still pretty wretched.

My GGGGGrandfather Allan Caldwell, a collier, and his wife lived at St Quivox about the time that the St Quivox and Newton-on Ayr mining was starting to get going. It was just before the official emancipation of coal miners and I would like to think that he wasn't a serf and that he had come off a farm. Either a younger son on a farm that could carry only one family or even a farm labourer who found the poor collier's income better than that of a farm hand.

"even by 1841 it is still clear that demand from this direction(domestic consumtion) exerted ... only a modest influence on the industry's structure." "Even Kilmarnock, which was the county's biggest town in 1841, consumed only 25,000 tons of coal produced within its parochial limits."
"foundres were established in the 1790's at Ayr, Irvine and Kilmarnock".
"Ayrshire's economy was still rooted firmly in agriculture. Kilmarnock, the county's leading industrial town, derived one-third of its manufacturing income from textiles in the 1790's and none of its industries required significant quantities of coal."
"John Taylor himself died in 1810. He had presided over a remarkable period of expansion from his Newton collieries, whose output increased from an annual average of around 1,200 tons in the three or four years prior to 1786 to over 25,000 tons in 1808, thus making him responsible for one of the county's largest mining enterprises."
Coal seemed abundant in Ayrshire but it was hard to work because "in many places the seems are troubled and unworkable".
"one of a number of reasons why Ayr's export performance was so poor for much of the 18th century must .. lie in the relative scarcity of workable coal on the south side of the river Ayr. Over the river at Newton, coal was found both in greater abundance and in a more favourable condition." "Much investment and a number of partnerships over a period of twenty years eventually led t the resolution of the problem of excess water" "By 1832 Newton's two coal seams were exhausted."
"The undertkers of coal at Alloway were frustrated in their attempts to find a sufficiently experienced grieve to look after their operations, and even when they did find Andrew Caldwell, lately of Craufordston coalwork, accusations of slackness and his inability to controlthe men, either in terms of work-rate or cost, led to his removal after barely one month's employment. No one else was any more successful." (SRO B6/28/5, Minute Book, 12 May 1729)
"Another common consequence of the shortage of labour in Scotlans's mines was its marked effect on the related issues of wages and rewards, control of output and work experience, and the methods by which these mattes should be resolved between emplyers and employed. One Scottish historian has rightly referred to Scotland's 'very unservile serfs' (Lenman) and indeed nowhere is the apparent ambiguity of theis situation better seen than in Ayrshire." "other evidence reveals that a framework for ongoing organised collective barganing had become well established"
"That Scottish coal miners in the 18th century were able to obtain higher wages than most of those paid outside the industy is well-known." (Duckham "Serfdom")
"What is also clear is that Scottish miners' wages were higher than their English counterparts." (Duckham Scottish Coal)
"There are clear signs however at this stage (1760's) that organised labour was exercising enough power within the industry to damage seriouly the interest of coalmasters with expansive ambitions. the root of the problem, it was thought, by a growing number of coalmasters both within Ayrshire and elsewhere, was 'the stigma of slavery' and the laws which restricted the entry even of 'free' miners." (Duckham 'Slavery')
"act of 1775 abolishing serfdom in collieries"
This does not seem to have been an act of humanitarianism but rather to break the coal-serf's 'union'
"the truth is that many Scottish coalmasters, and certinly those at Ayrshire's coastal locations, wanted more, cheaper and less effectively organised coal miners."
"it was the masters who were the 'Dupes and Slaves of the Coalliers', as was seen by their having to pay 'double and triple the wages for their work, hat is performed by the free men in England".
"in 1813 for instance a queue of twenty vessels waiting for coal at Ayr harbour had allegedly inspired George Taylor of the Ayr Coal Company to send a man to 'entice' colliers from pits elsewhere. taylor himself admitted that it was his custom to 'send his own servant with a horse and cart' to convey his new employees to Ayr."
Coalmining area of Ayrshire:
Towns and villages included:
Kilbirnie, Dalry, Kilwinning, Stevenston, Saltcoats, Ardrossan, Kilmaurs, Kilmarnock, Newmilns, Galston, Fairlie, Troon, Prestwick, Newton-upon-ayr(& St Quivox), Ayr, Tarbolton, Stair, Drongan, Dalmellington, Catrine, Muirkirk, Glenbuck, Auchinleck, Cumnock, New Cumnock