Studies in Earth-system economic history
(2025) In Lund Studies in Economic History- Abstract
- The urgency of global climate change and other geological-scale anthropogenic impacts also suggests new perspectives on economic history. This thesis argues for the inclusion into economic history of more Earth-system centred feedbacks, both in terms of environmental and climatic consequences and environmental and climatic causes, where consequences in one realm may again become causal in the other. More specifically this cause-consequence interplay between the Earth-system and the economic system is traced through the transition from an organic to a mineral energy economy, first in the original domestic energy transition in London and England, then for Western Europe and the world in the market-expanding globalisation phases of the first... (More)
- The urgency of global climate change and other geological-scale anthropogenic impacts also suggests new perspectives on economic history. This thesis argues for the inclusion into economic history of more Earth-system centred feedbacks, both in terms of environmental and climatic consequences and environmental and climatic causes, where consequences in one realm may again become causal in the other. More specifically this cause-consequence interplay between the Earth-system and the economic system is traced through the transition from an organic to a mineral energy economy, first in the original domestic energy transition in London and England, then for Western Europe and the world in the market-expanding globalisation phases of the first and second industrial revolutions. Since the original driver for adopting coal was domestic heating, which would have been profoundly impacted by the cooling climate of the Little Ice Age, the thesis develops methods to quantify both climate (temperature, precipitation) effects on potential wood supply and of changing temperatures on fuel requirements in England and the London region over the 1200-1800 period. The results reveal not only this climate effect, but also the shortcomings of fuel supply even when including coal, suggesting potential links between climate and both the coal and textile industries. The early-modern shortcomings of an organic economy were tentatively solved by geographical expansion, including into oceanic fisheries. The thesis also creates methods to estimate the land alleviation and ocean appropriation of seafood consumption in Europe, 1500–1800. The alleviation is compared favourably against coal for Europe as a whole until the mid-18th century, but unfavourably with the alleviation from either coal of yield increases in Western England over the same period. Finally, having identified decades of empirical study into trade-embodied environmental inputs and impacts over the past two centuries, the thesis finds converging patterns between those linked to the organic energy economy, best explained by comparative advantage according to resource endowments, and those linked to the mineral energy economy best explained by unequal exchange according to wealth and/or environmental efficiency. The Kappa and a postscript place the individual papers within both Earth-system and economic historical context, and proposes new avenues for research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/050dcaee-d8ea-4d52-bab7-e166e5fb8c8d
- author
- Brolin, John LU
- supervisor
- opponent
-
- Associate professor Infante-Amate, Juan, University of Granada
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-11-04
- type
- Thesis
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- energy transitions, Little Ice Age, early modern history, climate history, fisheries, ghost acreage, global trade, environmental accounting, environmental footprints, Anthropocene, Great Divergence, Great Transformation, Great Acceleration, England, Medieval Warm Period
- in
- Lund Studies in Economic History
- issue
- 122
- pages
- 402 pages
- publisher
- Lund University
- defense location
- EC3:207
- defense date
- 2025-11-28 10:15:00
- ISSN
- 1400-4860
- ISBN
- 978-91-989642-9-5
- 978-91-989642-8-8
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 050dcaee-d8ea-4d52-bab7-e166e5fb8c8d
- date added to LUP
- 2025-11-04 13:57:44
- date last changed
- 2025-12-05 09:12:36
@phdthesis{050dcaee-d8ea-4d52-bab7-e166e5fb8c8d,
abstract = {{The urgency of global climate change and other geological-scale anthropogenic impacts also suggests new perspectives on economic history. This thesis argues for the inclusion into economic history of more Earth-system centred feedbacks, both in terms of environmental and climatic consequences and environmental and climatic causes, where consequences in one realm may again become causal in the other. More specifically this cause-consequence interplay between the Earth-system and the economic system is traced through the transition from an organic to a mineral energy economy, first in the original domestic energy transition in London and England, then for Western Europe and the world in the market-expanding globalisation phases of the first and second industrial revolutions. Since the original driver for adopting coal was domestic heating, which would have been profoundly impacted by the cooling climate of the Little Ice Age, the thesis develops methods to quantify both climate (temperature, precipitation) effects on potential wood supply and of changing temperatures on fuel requirements in England and the London region over the 1200-1800 period. The results reveal not only this climate effect, but also the shortcomings of fuel supply even when including coal, suggesting potential links between climate and both the coal and textile industries. The early-modern shortcomings of an organic economy were tentatively solved by geographical expansion, including into oceanic fisheries. The thesis also creates methods to estimate the land alleviation and ocean appropriation of seafood consumption in Europe, 1500–1800. The alleviation is compared favourably against coal for Europe as a whole until the mid-18th century, but unfavourably with the alleviation from either coal of yield increases in Western England over the same period. Finally, having identified decades of empirical study into trade-embodied environmental inputs and impacts over the past two centuries, the thesis finds converging patterns between those linked to the organic energy economy, best explained by comparative advantage according to resource endowments, and those linked to the mineral energy economy best explained by unequal exchange according to wealth and/or environmental efficiency. The Kappa and a postscript place the individual papers within both Earth-system and economic historical context, and proposes new avenues for research.}},
author = {{Brolin, John}},
isbn = {{978-91-989642-9-5}},
issn = {{1400-4860}},
keywords = {{energy transitions; Little Ice Age; early modern history; climate history; fisheries; ghost acreage; global trade; environmental accounting; environmental footprints; Anthropocene; Great Divergence; Great Transformation; Great Acceleration; England; Medieval Warm Period}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{11}},
number = {{122}},
publisher = {{Lund University}},
school = {{Lund University}},
series = {{Lund Studies in Economic History}},
title = {{Studies in Earth-system economic history}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/232160877/Studies_in_Earth-system_economic_history.pdf}},
year = {{2025}},
}