Even as
economic growth was simply taking off, some economists were already pessimistic. Coal, wrote William Stanley Jevons in 1865, is "the mainspring of contemporary material civilisation". Yet it was limited and would soon run out. Although more could be discovered by
digging deeper, it would be significantly expensive to
extract and these higher costs would decrease the competitiveness of
Britain's manufacturers. After all, in other countries the
black fuel was still in sight of daylight.
Efficiency gains-using less coal to
produce the exact same
quantity of
stuff-would not
conserve the nation. Indeed, cleverer usage of restricted resources would simply supply an incentive to burn much more coal, which would, paradoxically, cause an even much faster usage of British reserves. There was no escape, the Victorian economist believed. Coal would be exhausted and the nation was likely to "contract to her previous littleness".
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short article appeared in the
Finance & economics area of the print edition under the headline "Rocked by DeepSeek"
Finance & economics February 1st 2025
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