| At present,it is particularly important to lay the foundation for building a socialist modern country in an all-round way under the guidance of high-quality development in the first year of implementing the spirit of the 20th Party Congress.Energy has been the basis and driving force for the survival and development of human beings for a long time.Looking back at the world economy at the beginning of modern industry before the eighteenth century,it was an era in which many new inventions emerged rapidly on an unprecedented scale.Looking back at industrial history from the high ground of modernization will help us to correctly understand the central role played by energy and science in all aspects of modern life,and will be of great benefit to our modernization process.Tracing back to Europe in the 18th century,the role of coal in the process of industrialization is pertinent.The discovery and utilization of coal effectively solved the bottleneck of energy shortage in the economic transformation of Europe.Behind the steady expansion of industrial production,the deeper level is The progress of science and technology is promoting each other.This industrialization is essentially a transformation from a natural economy to an economic model based on fossil energy,and it is the beginning of the continuation to modern technological progress.On the one hand,the acquisition and effective use of coal has promoted the continuous progress of science and technology,promoted the emergence of a large number of scientific figures and inventions,and sent a large number of talents and technologies to nearby coal fields,which in turn made new scientific inventions widely used in industry.The nineteenth-century European economy came to the fore.On the other hand,the distribution of coal resources played a leading role in the layout of the coal industry.At that time,modern large-scale industrial areas almost all appeared near large coal mines.Due to the high weight and high consumption,the transportation cost of coal is high.Therefore,using coal near the mining site not only saves a lot of cost,but also creates a series of inventions and creations.Therefore,the geographical distribution of coal distribution is particularly important.Based on this,this paper is based on the economic and geographical distribution of historical coal in Europe,and is committed to exploring its impact on scientific invention activities.Covering 2,180 city-level data in 25 European countries,this paper examines the effect of the economic and geographical distribution of historical coal in Europe on scientific invention activities.By manually sorting out the data on the closest distance between European cities and coal fields in the 18th century and the distribution of scientific figures and scientific achievements in each city in the 19th century,multi-angle control variables were added,including regional economic development level,social and cultural factors,and geographical influence factors.Other rich data sources,excluding the samples with missing data and the data of the time range outside this study,and excluding the interference caused by the special geographical location related to the coalfield and the factors affecting the distribution of scientists to confuse the empirical causal identification.Empirical results show that regions with coal resources facilitate the rise of scientists and engineers.In order to ensure the robustness of the empirical test method and the explanatory ability of the indicators,this paper adopts the variable replacement method,and the impact on the results still exists significantly.In addition,considering that there may be a reverse causal relationship between the distribution of coal and science and technology,we need to further address the possible endogeneity of the model.Coal in Europe is almost always found in Carboniferous rock deposits,so coal fields should usually be located on or very close to Carboniferous rock formations.Using the Carboniferous strata as a typical instrumental variable to control potential endogeneity,using the distance close to the Carboniferous strata as an instrumental variable,a two-stage least squares model was used to examine the impact of historical European coal resource distribution on scientific activities.The significance of the empirical results has not changed,indicating that the empirical results of the two-stage least squares method are robust.Further illustration,areas closer to coal fields achieved faster industrialization through coal.Coal could have contributed to the long industrial revolution through its role as a catalyst in the development of science and innovation.In addition,it is further explored whether there are different effects of scientific inventors and inventions whose coal resources are distributed in different categories.Through the heterogeneity analysis of subdivided dependent variables,it is confirmed that the areas adjacent to coal need more scientists of science and engineering to innovate and optimize mining technology,and being close to historical coal mines in space is conducive to scientific inventions.Through the heterogeneity analysis of subdivided dependent variables,it is confirmed that the areas adjacent to coal need more scientists from science and engineering to invent,innovate and optimize mining technology.Spatial proximity to historic coal mines facilitates scientific inventions.Finally,in addition to exploring the causal effect of coal resources on scientific inventions,this paper also focuses on the analysis of the specific pathways in which the use of coal resources affects the rise of scientific figures and the emergence of scientific inventions.Starting from the geographical location of the two major industries of textile industry and manufacturing industry,the proposed two mechanisms of "coal distribution to textile industry promoting to scientific invention" and "coal distribution to manufacturing to promoting scientific invention" are tested.The empirical results show that textile The use of coal and steam in the production of industry and manufacturing has positively stimulated scientific activities,clarified its path of increasing scientific innovation,interpreted how and to what extent natural resources affect scientific inventions,and expanded the history of European industrialization.It provides new ideas for the development of resource-rich regions in the modern world. |
