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Fig. 2.6 Long-term trends in labour and energy costs at nominal prices in southern England
(1560
1860, 1700 = 100). Source: Warde ( 2007 , p. 87, 2009 ). The series has been calculated from
the changing mix of energy carriers shown in graph 7, taking into account the labour, capital and
land required to get a unit of energy (considering that a single woodcutter could prepare about 1.1
tonnes of rewood a day or 3.3 million Kcal, compared with a coal miner who could extract as
much as 2.5 tonnes of coal or 17.5 million Kcal). Until the 1820s, overland travel of rewood as
well as coal mainly depended on
-
muscle power. This meant that in practice obtaining
coal at some distances from the coal eld was largely determined on the prices of human food and
animal feed. Therefore, fossil fuel did not enjoy a great advantage over rewood until the use of
steam engines, and new transport facilities such as canals or railways become widespread (Warde
2007 , pp. 83 - 86)
'
organic
'
. 47 Finally, the combination of higher wages and excep-
tional availability of cheap fossil fuels created exactly the economic context where
relative factor prices led entrepreneurs and
coal more attractive fuel
nancers to invest in the new type of
capital goods able to perform thermal, mechanical or chemical useful work that
opened the road to a new Schumpeterian-type of economic growth (Fig. 2.6 ).
After 1800 an unprecedented acceleration of technological change powered by
cheap coal ensued, and became a formidable weapon in the hands of new industrial
bosses which enabled them to earn and reinvest considerable pro
ts while keeping
wages well below the contemporary increase in labour productivity. The new
factories powered by steam engines or waterwheels were aimed at centralizing and
mechanizing the production processes, in order to replace comparatively expensive
human labour with capital goods as well as to control and master the
erce
47 Warde ( 2007 ).
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