An Environmental History of Wildlife in England 1650-1950

(^74) an environmenTal hisTory of Wildlife in england
threshold to an economy powered by fossil fuels, experiencing an industrial
revolution, so that a higher and higher proportion of the workforce was
employed full-time in mines, mills and factories. Growth was based on three
key sectors: coal, iron and textiles. Coal production rose from perhaps 2.5
million tons per annum to over 11 million by 1800, reaching more than
22 million by 1830.^4 There were less than twenty blast furnaces in England
in 1700; by 1805 there were 177 and by 1852 no less than 665, all now fired
with coke rather than charcoal. In 1700 around 30,000 tons of pig iron were
produced in England each year. By 1850 the figure was two million. The
expansion of textiles was if anything even more dramatic, although it came
a little later, following the improvements in spinning machinery made by
Hargreaves, Arkwright and Compton in the 1770s.^5
It is important to emphasize that demographic, industrial and agricultural
expansion were intimately interconnected. More reliable food supplies
figure 15 Graph showing the growth of the population of England between
1550 and 1950. Relatively gentle increase up to 1650 was followed by a period
of stagnation and decline. From c.1750 population growth resumed, escalating
significantly as industrialization intensified in the nineteenth century. The sheer scale
of demographic expansion since the sixteenth century and its environmental impact
are hard to exaggerate.