What Role Did Coal Play In The Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution was undoubtedly one of the most important events in the formation of the contemporary world. Sparked by the agricultural revolution of 1750 and 1880, the industrial revolution would transform Britain, and later the whole western world, into powerhouses of metal work, mining and industry. Beginning in England in around 1760, the revolution would continue well into the nineteenth century and bring around crucial inventions, such as steam pumps and railways. Crucially, the industrial revolution saw a switch from the use of wood and other bio-fuels such as charcoal for fuel, to coal for the very first time on a wide scale. It was this development that allowed the revolution to grow and spread across the whole world. Without the widespread mining of coal, the revolution simply could not have sustained itself. British lands were rich with coal, and there was a seemingly endless supply with millions of tons being processed every single year since the very beginning of the industrial revolution.

This essay will analyse in detail the crucial role that coal played in spreading and sustaining the industrial revolution before 1900, and will also discuss whether it was theoretically possible for the revolution to have survived without.
Many historians believe that the industrial revolution was a natural progression from the earlier agricultural revolution of the mid-eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The agricultural revolution had spread to Britain from the Netherlands, which increased food production substantially. It is estimated that between 1750 and 1800, agricultural productivity in Britain increased by twenty-six per cent, compared to a mere four per cent increase in France within the same period. It also lessened the economical reliance on farming and agriculture. In turn, this allowed many labourers to escape the so-called ‘Malthusian Trap’, and freed up workers to work in the developing mines and newly-forming factories. This also provided a significant amount of the funding needed to finance the initially expensive process of industrialisation. With substantially more available workers, an increased value of British agriculture, and enough food to comfortably feed the increasing population, it is easy to see why historians generally agree that the agricultural revolution ‘helped to power the industrialisation process through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.’