Abstract
The oil crisis that broke at the end of 1973 hit the countries of Western Europe especially hard.1 Its initial shock, and the disruption it caused, underscored the role of imported oil in the economic life of those countries.2 Yet this stark reality contrasted greatly with the position of only a decade or so before when indigenous sources provided the bulk of Western Europe’s energy requirements. Any assessment of the West European situation must therefore begin with the question: How did Western Europe arrive at this state of affairs? And how, and indeed why, has it become so heavily dependent on oil?
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Notes and References
This chapter draws together the material specifically relating to Western Europe in George F. Ray, Western Europe and the Energy Crisis, Thames Essay no. 6 (London: Trade Policy Research Centre, 1975).
For an account of the developments which precipitated the oil crisis, see Frank McFadzean, “Economic Implications of the Energy Crisis”, in Hugh Corbet and Robert Jackson (eds), In Search of a New World Economic Order (London: Croom Helm, for the Trade Policy Research Centre,. 1974).
Christopher Tugendhat and Adrian Hamilton, Oil: the Biggest Business (London: Eyre Methuen, 1975).
Andrew Shonfield, Modern Capitalism (London: Oxford University Press, 1965).
Christopher Hill, Reformation to Industrial Revolution (London: Penguin-Pelican, 1969) p. 88.
Max Weber, General Economic History (London: Allen & Unwin, 1923).
Asa Briggs, Technology and Economic Development (London: Penguin-Pelican, 1956) p. 16.
O. Stewart, Aviation: The Creative Ideas (London: Faber, 1966) p. 205.
Colin Robinson and Elizabeth M. Crook, “Is There a World Energy Crisis?”, National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review, London, May 1973.
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© 1976 Trade Policy Research Centre
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Ray, G.F. (1976). Impact of the Oil Crisis on the Energy Situation in Western Europe. In: Rybczynski, T.M. (eds) The Economics of the Oil Crisis. Trade Policy Research Centre. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02810-8_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-02810-8_6
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