King Coal Rules: Accepting or Refusing Coal Dependency in Victorian Britain
Fears of coal shortage emerged in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, when coal became not only the basis of British people’s daily lives, but also the staple of their economy. At the beginning of the 1870s, these fears intensified, following the publication of Stanley Jevons’s book The Co...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb, |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Revue française de civilisation britannique
2018
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | Fears of coal shortage emerged in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, when coal became not only the basis of British people’s daily lives, but also the staple of their economy. At the beginning of the 1870s, these fears intensified, following the publication of Stanley Jevons’s book The Coal Question in 1865 and a very long and difficult coal famine. This made it more complicated to put aside the fears of shortage. That nothing was finally done to tackle this issue can be explained by a strong faith in science (to solve all problems) and in free trade (even though it began to be fiercely contested), but also by a sense of doom: getting out of a system entirely based on coal demanded efforts that seemed overwhelming compared to the immediate dangers of shortage or even pollution. |
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