ABSTRACT
Economic and industrial factors, for a long time very unimportant, are assuming an absolutely preponderating influence. It was a matter of perfect indifference to Caesar, to Louis Quatorze, to Louis-Napoleon, or to any Western sovereign of old, whether China did or did not possess coal. The mere fact that man has discovered the means to extract from coal the energies which the sun has slowly stored up in it during millions of years has entirely revolutionised the material conditions of life. In creating new resources it has created new needs, and the changes in everyday life have soon brought in their train transformations in the moral and social state of the nations. There are many flourishing and opulent cities in Europe and America which would be condemned by it to bankruptcy or starvation, and it would be worse there than a famine or pestilence in China, India, or Japan.
