4 - The cheap energy economy

Summary

Coal is one of the greatest sources of English wealth and plenty [and] the soul of English manufactures.

Monsieur Ticquet, 1738

In Chapter 2, we saw that eighteenth-century Britain was a high wage economy. That was one way in which it was distinctive and which helps explain the technological innovations of the Industrial Revolution. But expensive labour was not the only way in which Britain stood apart from other countries. Even more striking was the price of energy. The early development of the coal industry in Britain meant that it had the cheapest energy in the world. Learning to use that energy was an important incentive to technical change, and one which distinguished Britain from other high wage countries in Europe like the Netherlands.

Coal is making a comeback. Great nineteenth-century works like Jevons' The Coal Question (1865) attributed Britain's industrial preeminence to abundant coal, and the theme was developed in John Nef's classic, The Rise of the British Coal Industry (1932). Later in the twentieth century, however, coal was eclipsed by macro-aggregates like capital accumulation and residual productivity growth. With attention returning to the micro-bases of economic growth, coal is coming back into prominence. Environmental historians were the first to emphasize its role. ‘The ecological roots of the English industrial revolution are not difficult to find.