Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
Electricity
Gas
Oil
Brown coal
Coal
Water
Wind
Peat
Firewood
Human
Livestock
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Fig. 2.7 Long-term energy transition in England and Wales, as percentages of each carrier
(1560
-
2000). Source Warde (
2007
, p. 74)
from the beginning the role played by mercantilist policies
—
under colonialism and
imperialism
in fostering British commercial development. Without this com-
mercial empire that followed and undermined the previous Dutch trade expansion,
the population of London could not have grown from approximately 50,000 to
200,000 between 1500 and 1600, then doubled in the next century, and reached
nearly one million by 1800. In the meantime the fraction of the English population
living in settlements of more than 10,000 people increased from 7 to 29 %, whilst
the share of the workforce in agriculture dropped from about 75 to 35 %.
53
This, in
turn, raises the question to what extent was the new type of Schumpeterian
industrial growth started by the British Industrial Revolution an actual possibility
for any other nation at the time. Adopting an ecological-economic approach may
help to properly address this question by taking into account the environmental load
displacement or ecological footprint that the Industrial Revolution entailed.
54
Following the idea of a
—
'
'
won by Europe through the colonization
of America, already put forward by Eric Jones and then Kenneth Pomeranz stressed
again, we may wonder about the role of environmental endowments and resource
availability in the Great Divergence between Europe and Asia before 1800.
55
ghost acreage
53
Omrod (
2003
).
54
Hornborg et al. (
2007
).
55
Goody (
2004
) and Emmer et al. (
2006
).
