Excerpts from Barbara Freese's Coal: a Human History (2015-06-08 15:40:25)

When Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, England was still held in some scorn by its larger, more powerful, and more sophisticated neighbors.  England's trade relations with Europe, still semi-colonial, were based largely on the nation's export of unfinished wool cloth and raw materials, England still had only a small presence on the seas, and lagged far behind most of its neighbors in science, technology, and urbanization.  All in all, there was little to suggest that England was moving into what many would look back as its golden age, and the beginning of its rise to preeminence in world affairs. (p.30)...

By 1600, London's population had reached 200,000...the Elizabethan age is known.  London traders drew England more deeply into the rest of the world; eventually they dominated the international cloth trade and grew rich from the emerging trade with America.  Before long, England had evolved beyond its semi-colonial status into a world commercial power. (p.33)

A clearer understanding of what coal was doing to Londoners and their city in the seventeenth century probably would not have made much difference in the choices they made as individuals.  Coal's pollution may have been killing them slowly, but a lack of heat would have killed them quickly.  It's been estimated that a poor family in London had to spend at least a tenth of its meager income on coal, and possibly much more, and this was when coal supplies were steady and prices low.  This would buy enough fuel to keep a small fire burning in one room for part of the day during the coldest months-in other words, enough to stay alive but not enough to stay comfortable.

  To enjoy the same warmth from firewood, they would have had to spend perhaps from two to five times as much, and the rising demand would have sent prices even higher.  Living as close to the margin as they did, coal was the obvious choice.  (p.42)

Only a small fraction of the world's coal is anthracite, and much of the world's supply   of this rare fuel is located within five counties in eastern Pennsylvania, trapped within now-eroded mountains (p.112)

Canals were slow, they froze in the winter,  and they couldn't go all the way to the mine.  The answer, of course, would be railroads, which followed close on the heels of the canals, as they had in Britain (p.121).

In 1956, after nearly seven hundred years of complaints about the coal smoke in London, Parliament finally banned the burning of soft coal in the central city, and the air immediately improved. (p.168) Barbara Freese

In 1956, after nearly seven hundred years of complaints about the coal smoke in London, Parliament finally banned the burning of soft coal in the central city, and the air immediately improved. (p.168) Barbara Freese