Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Chapter1 Accounting for the Industrial Revolution
- Chapter2 Industrial organisation and structure
- Chapter3 British population during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, 1680–1840
- Chapter4 Agriculture during the industrial revolution, 1700–1850
- Chapter5 Industrialisation and technological change
- Chapter6 Money, finance and capital markets
- Chapter7 Trade: discovery, mercantilism and technology
- Chapter8 Government and the economy, 1688–1850
- Chapter9 Household economy
- Chapter10 Living standards and the urban environment
- Chapter11 Transport
- Chapter12 Education and skill of the British labour force
- Chapter13 Consumption in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain
- Chapter14 Scotland
- Chapter15 The extractive industries
- Chapter16 The industrial revolution in global perspective
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter4 - Agriculture during the industrial revolution, 1700–1850
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Chapter1 Accounting for the Industrial Revolution
- Chapter2 Industrial organisation and structure
- Chapter3 British population during the ‘long’ eighteenth century, 1680–1840
- Chapter4 Agriculture during the industrial revolution, 1700–1850
- Chapter5 Industrialisation and technological change
- Chapter6 Money, finance and capital markets
- Chapter7 Trade: discovery, mercantilism and technology
- Chapter8 Government and the economy, 1688–1850
- Chapter9 Household economy
- Chapter10 Living standards and the urban environment
- Chapter11 Transport
- Chapter12 Education and skill of the British labour force
- Chapter13 Consumption in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain
- Chapter14 Scotland
- Chapter15 The extractive industries
- Chapter16 The industrial revolution in global perspective
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
British agriculture developed in a distinctive manner that made important contributions to economic growth. By the early nineteenth century, agricultural labour productivity was one third higher in England than in France, and each British farm worker produced over twice as much as his Russian counterpart (Bairoch 1965; O’Brien and Keyder 1978; Wrigley 1985; Allen 1988, 2000). Although the yield per acre of grains was no higher in Britain than in other parts of north-western Europe, the region as a whole reaped yields twice those in most other parts of the world (Allen and O’Gráda 1988; Allen 1992.)
Most accounts of British farming link the high level of efficiency to Britain’s peculiar agrarian institutions. In many parts of the continent, farms were small, operated by families without hired labour and often owned by their cultivators. Farms often consisted of strips scattered in open fields, and animals were often grazed on commons. Peasant farming of this sort was consolidated by the French Revolution. In contrast, in Britain, the open fields were enclosed, farm size increased and tenancy became general. While this transformation had been underway since the middle ages, it reached its culmination during the industrial revolution. Furthermore, it is often claimed that the agrarian transformation made important contributions to industrialisation by increasing output and supplying the industrial economy with labour and capital.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain , pp. 96 - 116Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
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