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Great Divergence

Wrigley energy series

Tony Wrigley’s reconstruction of English (then British) annual energy consumption by source, from approximately 1560 to 1850. Built up from independent estimates of human metabolic energy use, animal traction (horses, oxen), wind and water (mills, sails), firewood and charcoal, and coal — all expressed in common energy units (joules or coal-tons-equivalent). The series is the empirical backbone of the organic-to-mineral energy transition framing and shows the long crossover from organic to fossil energy as the load-bearing event of the Industrial Revolution.

Coverage

Section titled “Coverage”
  • Time: ~1560–1850, annual or by-decade.
  • Variables: energy consumption by source (human, animal, wood/charcoal, water, wind, coal); shares; per-capita.
  • Geography: England (early period) and Britain.

Source

Section titled “Source”

Wrigley, Energy and the English Industrial Revolution (Cambridge, 2010), data appendix; earlier versions in Wrigley, Continuity, Chance and Change (1988).