In the early nineteenth century, political economists, politicians, and geologists debated the size and duration of the British coal supply. For mineral Malthusians, the argument about a dwindling supply sharpened anxieties about population pressure, fuel demand, and limited resources. They introduced a new sense of geological limits and long-term obligations into the theology of atonement. But for cornucopian liberals, the shift to a mineral energy regime supplied a powerful refutation to the Malthusian forecast. Inexhaustible coal promised growth without end.
CITATION STYLE
Jonsson, F. A. (2020). The Coal Question before Jevons. Historical Journal, 63(1), 107–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X19000153
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