Lund Papers in Economic History,
Lund University, Department of Economic History

Abstract: We provide a natural resource explanation for the divergence of the Portuguese economy relative to other European countries before the Second World War, based on a considerable body of contemporary sources. First, we demonstrate that a lack of domestic resources meant that Portugal experienced limited and unbalanced growth during the age of steam. Imports of coal were prohibitively expensive for inland areas, which failed to industrialize. Coastal areas developed through steam, but were constrained by limited demand from the interior. Second, we show that after the First World War, when other coal-poor countries turned to hydro-power, Portugal relied on coal-based thermal-power, creating a vicious circle of high energy prices and labor-intensive industrialization. We argue that this was the result of (i) water resources which were relatively expensive to exploit; and (ii) path-dependency, whereby the failure to develop earlier meant that there was a lack of capital and demand from industry.

Keywords: Industrial Revolution; natural resources; coal; electrification; energy prices

JEL-codes: N13; N14; N53; N54; O13; Q43

39 pages, December 21, 2018

Full text files

4ad0f009-5904-4c06-bc49-bd29bb8212e4  Full text

Download statistics

• Lund University, Department of Economic History
• Home page for this series

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Tobias Karlsson ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

RePEc:hhs:luekhi:0185This page generated on 2024-09-13 22:16:07.