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The economics of abundance: coal and cotton in Lancashire and the world
Author(s) -
BALDERSTON THEO
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the economic history review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.014
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1468-0289
pISSN - 0013-0117
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00453.x
Subject(s) - coal , economies of agglomeration , situated , economics , agricultural economics , natural resource economics , economy , industrial revolution , economic geography , geography , archaeology , economic growth , artificial intelligence , computer science
As a subterranean, highly elastic energy source, coal played a vital role in the cotton industry revolution. Coal was also vital to Lancashire's primacy in this revolution, because it was necessary both to the original accumulation of agglomeration economies before the steam age and to their reinforcement during the steam age. In no other part of the world was the cotton industry situated on a coalfield, and the response of other parts of the world cotton industry to Lancashire's agglomeration advantages was dispersal in search of cheap water and/or labour power. Lancashire coal helped to shape the global pattern of cotton production.