17th century Netherlands contains another interesting case. The depletion of peat, a primary energy source for the Dutch between the 16th and 17th centuries, directly contributed to the end of the Dutch Golden Age and economic stagnation, even decline. The Dutch economy could perhaps have continued growing had it embraced coal as peat supplies depleted, but no such switch occurred. According to The Rise and Decline of Dutch Technological Leadership by Karel Davids:
The Dutch succeeded in raising output per capita to an unheard-of extent for a prolonged period of time by making increased use of a stock of energy resources, instead of a flow, in the form of large deposits of peat. Eventually, however, the Netherlands did not escape the ‘limitations experienced by all organic economies’, namely relatively low maximum levels of energy input and productivity growth, given the ‘extreme inefficiency of the process of photosynthesis in converting solar energy into a form accessible to living creatures’. Increased reliance on peat postponed the day of reckoning, Wrigley argues, but it also implied that Dutch industries, thriving for a long time on cheap heat energy, found it difficult to compete once the depletion of peat stocks led to rising prices of fuel. In contrast with eighteenth-century England, the Dutch Republic did not to make a transition to a ‘mineral-based energy economy’, which allowed a outlet from the traditional constraints on energy input and productivity growth.
Davis Kedrosky argues that the Dutch government, rather than market forces, prevented a switch to coal. Nonetheless, this does appear to be an example of major economic damage caused by resource depletion.
17th century Netherlands contains another interesting case. The depletion of peat, a primary energy source for the Dutch between the 16th and 17th centuries, directly contributed to the end of the Dutch Golden Age and economic stagnation, even decline. The Dutch economy could perhaps have continued growing had it embraced coal as peat supplies depleted, but no such switch occurred. According to The Rise and Decline of Dutch Technological Leadership by Karel Davids:
Davis Kedrosky argues that the Dutch government, rather than market forces, prevented a switch to coal. Nonetheless, this does appear to be an example of major economic damage caused by resource depletion.