Inspired by recent scholarship into the materiality of resources, this article discusses a straightforward hypothesis: If humans construct knowledge, technologies, and economies around raw materials, the substance of these materials, i.e. their properties and the physical, chemical, and biological effects they unfold, will necessarily change as well. To substantiate this hypothesis, the article focusses on a paradigmatic case, the rising exploitation and consumption of coal by the iron and steel industry between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. This article argues that analysing the changes to the substance of coal is crucial to fully understand the historical transformations in modern history in which coal as a raw material was entangled.
Sebastian Haumann (Wed,) studied this question.