Energy Crisis and Growth 1650-1850. The European Deviation in a Comparative Perspective

The present article adopts a comparative perspective contrasting the agricultural civilization of Europe with the agricultural civilizations of other regions to understand the reasons for Europe’s transition to modern energy carriers. In Europe—especially in the West and North—specific ecological conditions determined a stronger need for energy than in other coeval agrarian civilizations. The rapid growth of the European population from the second half of the seventeenth century onward, on the one hand, and worsening climatic conditions, on the other, determined an energy crisis and a lowering of living standards, especially in the second half of the eighteenth century and the first two decades of the nineteenth. After 1820, a shift to different, cheaper energy carriers laid the foundation for a new age of growth. Introduction In pre-modern agrarian societies, the exploitation of traditional sources of energy, produced by using the soil as a converter, made continuous growth unattainable. The population grew faster than the energy basis, and this eventually resulted in diminished labour productivity, low profit opportunities, low productive capital formation, low wage rates, and declining per capita product. Labour became cheaper and raw materials, and especially energy, more expensive. A widespread adoption of fossil fuels and the introduction of machinery in the production process reversed this trend. Lower energy costs translated into lower prices for goods and services, just as the demand for those goods and services was increasing. This provided the basis for Europe’s self-sustained growth, a transition that marked a watershed in the history of the world’s economy. While the importance of energy in determining Modern Growth is widely recognized, still poor is quantitative information about the main energy sources used by pre-modern agrarian societies, consumption levels in different regions, and the distinctive features of Paolo Malanima is Professor of Economic History, University Magna Graecia, in Catanzaro and Director of the Institute of Studies on Mediterranean Societies (National Research Council) in Naples, Italy. 101 Journal of Global History, 1,1 pp 101–121 (2006) London School of Economics and Political Science DOI: 10.1017/S1740022806000064 Printed in the United Kingdom