19. The United Kingdom fuel crisis of 1974
Coincident with the oil crisis in the United States, the United Kingdom faced an energy crisis of its own. Gasoline (America’s British cousins call it petrol) had always cost more, and was consumed less, in the United Kingdom than in America. Coal remained the primary source of heating fuel for homes and businesses. Nevertheless, the oil crisis affected the British as well, and the sudden increase in oil prices coincided with a coal strike which was supported by mine workers who dug the coal and the railroad workers who shipped it to market. The crisis was so severe in the United Kingdom that the government fell, requiring special elections to form a new government during the winter of 1973-74. The British government asked British citizens to conserve by limiting the number of rooms within their homes which were heated over the course of the winter.
European customers for British coal were forced to cut back on consumption of all fuels as well, including the consumption of “petrol”. Recreational driving was discouraged in several European countries, including across Scandinavia and in West Germany. The use of boats for non-commercial purposes was banned outright, and eventually driving on Sunday was banned except for those requiring their automobile to commute to and from work. Electrical consumption was rationed in several countries, since most electricity in Europe was at the time generated by burning coal. In the Netherlands, the penalty for exceeding one’s allotted ration was incarceration. The year 1974 was the first in which a global financial crisis was deliberately created through manipulation of oil, but it was not the last.