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17th‑Century London’s Coal Dependence Fueled Social Unrest

London’s Coal Supply in the 17th Century – A Case Study in Energy Security By the early seventeenth century, coal had replaced wood as the main fuel used in London and other towns in southeast England for domestic heating as well as most manufacturing, other than iron-making. Nearly all of London’s coal came from fields in northeast England, where it was loaded onto vessels at the ports of Newcastle and Sunderland, carried down the east coast and then up the River Thames to be unloaded in the capital. Coal had become critical for energy security and national defence and therefore a preoccupation for top policymakers. Disruptions to the coal supply resulted in hardship and in some cases even death for lower-income households who had no alternatives for heating and cooking. Senior officials in the City of London as well as the national government repeatedly expressed fears that fuel shortages and extremely high prices would result in unrest rioting among the poorer classes. Lack of coal was also a potential national security issue because of the threat to the production of gunpowder and other items essential for the defence of the realm. “Now that London had become dependent upon the north of England for her fuel, any English government must retain control of Newcastle as the price of its existence, and the nation must have a navy strong enough to keep the enemy from blocking the passage along the east coast,” according to one of the foremost historians of Britain’s coal industry. London’s coal supply from Newcastle down the east coast was as important for energy security in the seventeenth century as the oil supply from the Middle East via the Strait of Hormuz is in the twenty-first century. Many of the policy responses to energy security challenges in the seventeenth century were the same as those commonly used today ...