This paper examines the evolution of energy use and its influences in the United Kingdom over the very long run by combining economic literature and statistical information. The paper argues that the provision of energy services, mainly heat and power, is bound by the tensions between a changing growth rate and structure of economic activity and the constraints of energetic resources. After periods of tension, energy price differentials, as well as the diffusion of technological innovation and the development of new fuels, led to new mixes of energy sources to supply heat and power. This paper identifies three major changes that characterise the history of UK energy use: first, the dramatic increase in per capita energy use; second, the shift in methods of supplying energy services, from biomass sources to fossil fuels, from coal to petroleum to natural gas, and from raw forms to more value-added energy sources; and, third, the replacing of direct methods of generating power, from animate sources, wind and water, by the use of mechanical and electrical methods, which have so far depended mainly on fossil fuels. These changes were instrumental in influencing the relationship between GDP and energy use, and also the levels of environmental pollution.
AllenR. (1994). “Agriculture during the industrial revolution,” in FloudM.McCloskeyD., eds., The Economic History of Britain since 1700: Vol I (1700-1860). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
AndersonD. (1993). “Energy-efficiency and the economics of pollution abatement.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment18: 291-318.
3.
AndersonJ.L. (1981). “Climatic change in European economic history.” Research in Economic History6: 1-34.
4.
AshbyE.AndersonM. (1981). The Politics of Clean Air. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
5.
AshworthW. (1987). The History of the British Coal Industry. Vol 5.1946-1987. The Nationalized Industry. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
6.
BeckerG.S. (1976). The Economic Approach to Human Behaviour. London: University of Chicago Press.
7.
BergM. (1994). “Factories, workshops and industrial organisation,” in FloudM.McCloskeyD., eds., The Economic History of Britain since 1700: Vol I (1700-1860). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8.
BeveridgeW. (1894). Prices and Wages in England: From the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century. London: Longmans, Green and Co.
9.
BowdenP. (1967). “Statistical appendix,” in ThirskJ., ed., The Agrarian History of England and Wales. 1500-1640. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.
BowlusC.R. (1978). Energy and Ecology in Medieval Europe (1000-1350). Paper presented for the Conservation Foundation, Washington D.C.
11.
BrimblecombeP. (1977). “London Air Pollution, 1500-1900.” Atmospheric Environment11:1157-62.
12.
BrimblecombeP. (1987). The Big Smoke: A History of Air Pollution in London Since Medieval Times. London: Methuen.
13.
British Parliamentary Papers (1873). Reports of the Select Committee Report on Dearness and Scarcity of Coal. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press.
14.
British Parliamentary Papers (1896). Reports of the Select Committee Report on Petroleum. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press.
15.
British Parliamentary Papers (1902). Coal Statistical Tables. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press.
16.
British Parliamentary Papers (1914). Mines and Quarries Statistical Tables. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press.
17.
British Parliamentary Papers (1926). Coal Statistical Tables. Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press.
18.
Carus-WilsonE.M. (1941). “An industrial revolution of the thirteenth century.” Economic History Review11.
19.
ChenX. (1994). “Substitution of information for energy: conceptual background, realities and limits.” Energy Policy22(1): 15-27.
20.
ChurchR. (1987). The History of the British Coal Industry. Vol 3. 1830-1913. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
21.
ChurchR. (1989). “Production, employment and labour productivity in the British coalfields, 1830-1913: some reinterpretations.” Business History31: 7-27.
22.
ClappB.W. (1994). An Environmental History of Britain since the Industrial Revolution. London: Longman Group.
23.
CowanR. (1990). “Nuclear power reactors: a study in technological lock in.” Journal of Economic History50: 541-67.
24.
CowanR.GunbyP. (1996). “Sprayed to death: path dependence, lock-in and pest control strategies.” Economic Journal106(3): 521-42.
25.
CraftsN.F.R. (1983). “British economic growth, 1700-1831: a review of the evidence.” Economic History Review36: 177-99.
26.
CraftsN.F.R. (1995). “Exogenous or endogenous growth? The industrial revolution reconsidered.” Journal of Economic History55(4): 745-72.
27.
DavisR. (1954). “English foreign trade 1660-1700.” Economic History Review7: 150-166. Department of Trade and Industry (1997 and backdates) Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics. London: HMSO.
28.
ElsomD.M. (1997). “Atmospheric pollution trends in the United Kingdom.” in SimonJ.L., ed., The State of Humanity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
29.
EdwardsP.R. (1983). “The Horse Trade in Tudorand Stuart England,” in ThompsonF.M.L., ed., Horses in European Economic History. Reading: The British Agricultural History Society.
30.
FalkusM. (1967). “The British gas industry before 1850.” Economic History Review20.
31.
FalkusM. (1976). “Lighting in the Dark Ages of English economic history.” in ColemanD.C.JohnA.H., eds., Trade, Government and Economy in Pre-Industrial England. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
32.
FannerD.L. (1988). “Prices and wages,” in ThirskJ., ed., The Agrarian History of England and Wales (1042-1250). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
FeinsteinC.H. (1972). National Income, Expenditure and Output of the United Kingdom, 18551965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
FlinnM.W. (1959). “Timber and the advance of technology.” Annals of Science15.
35.
FlinnM.W. (1978). “Technical change as an escape from resource scarcity: England in the seventeenth and eighteenth century.” in MaczakA.ParkerW.N., eds., Natural resources in European History. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future.
36.
FlinnM.W. (1984). The History of the British Coal Industry. Vol 2. 1700-1830. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
37.
FlowersR.J.BatterbeeR.W. (1984). “Diatom evidence for recent acidification of two Scottish Lochs.” Nature305: 130-3.
38.
GallowayJ.A.KeeneD.MurphyM. (1996). “Fuelling the city: production and distribution of firewood in London”s region, 1290-1400.” Economic History Review49(3): 447-72.
39.
GrossmanG.M.HelpmanE. (1994). “Endogenous innovation in the theory of growth.” Journal of Economic Perspectives8(1): 23-44.
40.
HammersleyG. (1973). “The charcoal industry and its fuel 1540-1750.” Economic History Review26: 593-613.
41.
HannahL. (1979). Electricity Before Nationalisation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
42.
HatcherJ. (1993). The History of the British Coal Industry. Volume I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
43.
HoltR. (1988). The Mills of Medieval England. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
44.
HumphreyW.StanislawJ. (1979). “Economic growth and energy consumption in the UK, 1700-1975.” Energy Policy7(1): 29-42.
45.
C.K.Hyde (1973). “The adoption of coke-smelting by the British iron industry, 1709-1790.” Explorations in Economic History10: 400-7.
46.
JevonsW.S. (1865). The Coal Question. London: Macmillan.
47.
JonesC.L. (1989). “Coal, gas and electricity,” in PopeR., ed., Atlas of British Economic and Social History since 1700. London: Routledge.
48.
MitchellB.R. (1984). Economic Development of the British Coal Industry 1800-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
49.
LandesD.S. (1969). The Unbound Prometheus: Technological Change and Development in Western Europe from 1750 to the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
50.
LangdonJ. (1986). Horses, Oxen and Technological Innovation: The Use of Draught Animals in English Farming from 1066 to 1500. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51.
LangdonJ. (1991). “Water-mills and windmills in the west midlands, 1086-1500.” Economic History Review44: 424-44.
52.
MartinJ.M. (1988). “L’intensité énergétique de l’activite economique dans les pays industrialises: les évolutions de tres longues periode livrent-elles des enseignements utiles?” Economie et Societé: Cahiers de 1’ISMEA.
53.
Ministry of Fuel and Power (1951). Statistical Digest 1950. London: HMSO.
54.
Ministry of Power (1961). Statistical Digest 1960. London: HMSO.
55.
MitchellB.R. (1988). British Historical Statistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
56.
NefJ.U. (1932). The Rise of the British Coal Industry. Volume I-II. London: Roudedge and Sons.
57.
NordhausW. D. (1997). “Do real output and real wage measures capture reality? The history of lighting suggests not,” in , eds., The Economics of New Goods. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
58.
Office of National Statistics (1997). Economic Trends. London: HMSO.
59.
PearsonP.J.G. (1991). Prospects for British Coal. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
60.
P.J.G.Pearson (1994). “Energy, externalities and environmental quality: will development cure the ills it creates?” Energy Studies Review6(3): 199-216.
61.
PearsonP.J.G. (1997). “Air pollution, environmental policy and electricity liberalisation in the UK.” Conference Proceedings for the British Institute of Energy Economics: The International Energy Experience. Warwick University. Coventry. 6-7 December.
62.
Phelps-BrownH.HopkinsS.V. (1956). “Seven centuries of the prices of consumables, compared with builders” wage-rates.” Economica23: 92-110.
63.
RackhamO. (1980). Ancient Woodlands: Its History, Vegetation and Uses in England. London: Edward Arnold.
64.
RayG.MorelJ. (1982). “Energy conservation in the UK.” Energy Economics4(2): 83-97.
65.
ReynoldsT.S. (1983). Stronger than a Hundred Men: a History of the Vertical Water Wheel. London: Johns Hopkins University Press.
66.
J.E.T.Rogers (1865, 1882, 1886). A History of Agriculture and Prices in England. Vol I-VI. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
67.
RognerH.H. (1997). “An assessment and technologies of world hydrocarbon resource.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment22: 217-62.
68.
RosenbergN. (1994). Exploring the Black Box: Technology, Economics and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
69.
RosenbergN. (1998). “The role of electricity in industrial development.” The Energy Journal19(2): 7-24.
70.
SalwayA.G.EgglestonH.S.GoodwinJ.W.L., (1997). UK Emissions of Air Pollutants 1970-1995. A Report of the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. Harwell: AEA Technology.
71.
SchipperL.MeyersS. (1992). Energy Efficiency and Human Activity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
72.
SchurrS.H.NetschertR. (1960). Energy in the American Economy. London: John Hopkins Press.
73.
SchofieldR. (1994). “British population change, 1700-1871.” in FloudM.McCloskeyD., eds., The Economic History of Britain since 1700: Vol I (1700-1860). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
74.
SimmonsI.G. (1993). Environmental History: A Concise Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
75.
SmilV. (1994). Energy in World History. Oxford: Westview Press.
76.
SnooksG.B. (1994). Was The Industrial Revolution Necessary? London: Roudedge.
77.
SprengD. (1993). “Possibilities for substitution between energy, information and time.” Energy Policy21(1): 13-21.
78.
SurreyJ (1996). The British Electricity Experiment. London: Earthscan.
79.
ThirskJ. (1978). Horses in Early Modem England:for Services, for Pleasure, for Power. Reading: The British Agricultural History Society.
80.
ThomasB. (1986). “Was there an energy crisis in Great Britain in the 17th century?” Explorations in Economic History Review23: 124-52.
81.
ThomasB. (1994). “The end of the charcoal iron age,” in ThomasB., ed., The Industrial Revolution and the Atlantic Economy: Selected Essays. London: Routledge.
82.
ThompsonF.M.L. (1983). “Horses and Hays in Britain,” in ThompsonF.M.L., ed., Horses in European Economic History. Reading: The British Agricultural History Society.
83.
Von TunzelmannG.N. (1978). Steam Power and British Industrialisation until 1860. OxfordRoutledge.
84.
WitneyK.P. (1990). “The woodland economy of Kent, 1066-1348.” Agricultural History Review38: 20-39.
85.
WrigleyE.A. (1962). “The supply of raw materials in the industrial revolution.” Economic History Review15(1): 1-16.
86.
WrigleyE.A. (1988). Continuity, Chance and Change: The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
87.
WrigleyE.A. (1993). “Reflections on the history of energy supply, living standards, and economic growth.” Australian Economic History Review33(1): 3-21.
88.
WrigleyE.A.SchofieldR.S. (1981) The Population History of England, 1541-1871: A Reconstruction. London.
