What Major Innovation Helped to Shape and Spread the Second Agricultural Revolution

New Agricultural Practices

The Agricultural Revolution, the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in United kingdom between the mid-17th and belatedly 19th centuries, was linked to such new agricultural practices as crop rotation, selective breeding, and a more productive use of abundant land.

Learning Objectives

Trace the evolution of new agricultural techniques

Fundamental Takeaways

Central Points

• The Agricultural Revolution was the unprecedented increase in farm production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Still, historians continue to dispute whether the developments leading to the unprecedented agricultural growth can be seen as "a revolution," since the growth was, in fact, a event of a series of significant changes that took place over a long menstruum of time.
• One of the about of import innovations of the Agronomical Revolution was the development of the Norfolk 4-class rotation, which greatly increased ingather and livestock yields by improving soil fertility and reducing fallow. Crop rotation is the practise of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons to help restore plant nutrients and mitigate the build-up of pathogens and pests that ofttimes occurs when 1 plant species is continuously cropped.
• Following a two-field crop rotation organisation mutual in the Middle Ages and a three-year three field crop rotation routine employed later on, the regular planting of legumes such every bit peas and beans in the fields that were previously dormant became cardinal and slowly restored the fertility of some croplands. In the cease, it was the farmers in Flanders (in parts of French republic and electric current day Kingdom of belgium) that discovered a still more constructive four-field crop rotation organization, using turnips and clover (a legume) as fodder crops to replace the iii-year ingather rotation dormant year.
• The iv-field rotation arrangement allowed farmers to restore soil fertility and restore some of the found nutrients removed with the crops. Turnips commencement testify up in the probate records in England as early on every bit 1638 only were not widely used until about 1750. Fallow state was about xx% of the abundant area in England in 1700 earlier turnips and clover were extensively grown. Guano and nitrates from S America were introduced in the mid-19th century and fallow steadily declined to attain only about 4% in 1900.
• In the mid-18th century, two British agriculturalists, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke, introduced selective breeding as a scientific practise and used inbreeding to stabilize certain qualities in order to reduce genetic diversity. Bakewell was besides the first to brood cattle to be used primarily for beefiness.
• Sure practices that contributed to a more productive use of land intensified, such equally converting some pasture country into arable state and recovering fen country and pastures. Other developments came from Flanders and the Netherlands, the region that became a pioneer in canal building, soil restoration and maintenance, soil drainage, and land reclamation applied science. Finally, water-meadows were utilized in the belatedly 16th to the 20th centuries and allowed earlier pasturing of livestock after they were wintered on hay.

Key Terms

• ingather rotation: The exercise of growing a serial of dissimilar or different types of crops in the same area in sequenced seasons so that the soil of farms is not used to but one blazon of food. Information technology helps in reducing soil erosion and increases soil fertility and crop yield.
• Industrial Revolution: The transition to new manufacturing processes in the catamenia from about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing utilize of steam power, the development of car tools, and the ascent of the mill system.
• Agricultural Revolution: The unprecedented increment in agricultural production in Britain due to increases in labor and land productivity betwixt the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agronomical output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770 and thereafter productivity remained amid the highest in the globe.
• common field system: A system of land ownership in which state is owned collectively by a number of persons, or past one person with others having certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, collect firewood, or cut turf for fuel.

Agricultural Revolution

The Agricultural Revolution was the unprecedented increase in agricultural production in United kingdom due to increases in labor and state productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770 and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the earth. This increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.5 million in 1700 to over nine million past 1801, although domestic production gave manner to food imports in the 19th century as population more than than tripled to over 32 million. The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agronomical share of the labor strength, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended. The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a crusade of the Industrial Revolution. Nonetheless, historians besides continue to dispute whether the developments leading to the unprecedented agricultural growth can exist seen equally "a revolution," since the growth was, in fact, a event of a serial of significant changes over a her long period of time. Consequently, the question of when exactly such a revolution took identify and of what information technology consisted remains open up.

Crop Rotation

One of the most important innovations of the Agricultural Revolution was the development of the Norfolk four-grade rotation, which greatly increased ingather and livestock yields by improving soil fertility and reducing fallow.

Ingather rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons to assistance restore plant nutrients and mitigate the build-up of pathogens and pests that often occurs when one constitute species is continuously cropped. Rotation can likewise amend soil construction and fertility past alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants. The Norfolk System, as it is now known, rotates crops so that different crops are planted with the result that different kinds and quantities of nutrients are taken from the soil as the plants grow. An important characteristic of the Norfolk 4-field organization was that it used labor at times when demand was not at superlative levels. Planting cover crops such every bit turnips and clover was not permitted under the common field organisation considering they interfered with access to the fields and other people's livestock could graze the turnips.

During the Middle Ages, the open field system initially used a two-field crop rotation system where one field was left fallow or turned into pasture for a fourth dimension to attempt to recover some of its plant nutrients. Later, a three-yr three-field ingather rotation routine was employed, with a different ingather in each of two fields, e.g. oats, rye, wheat, and barley with the second field growing a legume like peas or beans, and the 3rd field fallow. Usually from ten–thirty% of the arable country in a three-crop rotation system is fallow. Each field was rotated into a different crop nearly every twelvemonth. Over the following 2 centuries, the regular planting of legumes such every bit peas and beans in the fields that were previously fallow slowly restored the fertility of some croplands. The planting of legumes helped to increase establish growth in the empty field due to the leaner on legume roots' ability to fix nitrogen from the air into the soil in a class that plants could use. Other crops that were occasionally grown were flax and members of the mustard family. The practice of convertible husbandry, or the alternation of a field between pasture and grain, introduced pasture into the rotation. Because nitrogen builds up slowly over time in pasture, plowing pasture and planting grains resulted in high yields for a few years. A large disadvantage of convertible husbandry, however, was the hard work that had to exist put into breaking upwardly pastures and difficulty in establishing them.

Information technology was the farmers in Flanders (in parts of France and current-solar day Belgium) that discovered a still more effective 4-field crop rotation arrangement, using turnips and clover (a legume) as forage crops to replace the three-twelvemonth crop rotation fallow year. The four-field rotation system immune farmers to restore soil fertility and restore some of the plant nutrients removed with the crops. Turnips first show upwards in the probate records in England every bit early on every bit 1638 but were non widely used until about 1750. Dormant land was nearly twenty% of the arable area in England in 1700 earlier turnips and clover were extensively grown. Guano and nitrates from Southward America were introduced in the mid-19th century and dormant steadily declined to reach only about four% in 1900. Ideally, wheat, barley, turnips, and clover would exist planted in that order in each field in successive years. The turnips helped proceed the weeds down and were an excellent forage ingather—ruminant animals could eat their tops and roots through a big part of the summer and winters. There was no need to let the soil lie fallow as clover would add nitrates (nitrogen-containing salts) dorsum to the soil. The clover made excellent pasture and hay fields also equally dark-green manure when it was plowed under after one or 2 years. The addition of clover and turnips allowed more animals to be kept through the winter, which in turn produced more milk, cheese, meat, and manure, which maintained soil fertility.

Charles 'Turnip' Townshend, agriculturalist who was a peachy enthusiast of four-field ingather rotation and the cultivation of turnips.

Townshend is ofttimes mentioned, together with Jethro Tull, Robert Bakewell, and others, equally a major figure in England'southward Agricultural Revolution, contributing to adoption of agricultural practices that supported the increment in Britain's population between 1700 and 1850.

Other Practices

In the mid-18th century, 2 British agriculturalists, Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke, introduced selective breeding as a scientific exercise (mating together two animals with particularly desirable characteristics) and using inbreeding (the mating of close relatives) to stabilize certain qualities in social club to reduce genetic diversity. Arguably, Bakewell's most of import breeding program was with sheep. Using native stock, he was able to rapidly select for large, yet fine-boned sheep with long, lustrous wool. Bakewell was also the first to breed cattle to be used primarily for beef. Previously, cattle were first and foremost kept for pulling plows as oxen or for dairy uses, with beef from surplus males as an additional bonus. Every bit more and more farmers followed Bakewell's atomic number 82, farm animals increased dramatically in size and quality.

Sure practices that contributed to a more productive apply of land intensified, for example converting some pasture country into arable state and recovering fen land and some pastures. It is estimated that the amount of arable country in Britain grew by x-30% through these state conversions. Other developments came from Flanders and and holland, where due to the large and dense population, farmers were forced to take maximum advantage of as of usable land. The region became a pioneer in canal building, soil restoration and maintenance, soil drainage, and land reclamation technology. Dutch experts like Cornelius Vermuyden brought some of this technology to United kingdom. Finally, h2o-meadows were utilized in the belatedly 16th to the 20th centuries and allowed earlier pasturing of livestock afterwards they were wintered on hay. This increased livestock yields, giving more hides, meat, milk, and manure as well as better hay crops.

New Agronomical Tools

An important factor of the Agronomical Revolution was the invention of new tools and advancement of old ones, including the plough, seed drill, and threshing car, to improve the efficiency of agricultural operations.

Learning Objectives

Identify some of the new tools developed as part of the Agricultural Revolution

Cardinal Takeaways

Key Points

• The mechanization and rationalization of agriculture was a central cistron of the Agricultural Revolution. New tools were invented and old ones perfected to amend the efficiency of various agronomical operations.
• The Dutch plough was brought to Britain by Dutch contractors. In 1730, Joseph Foljambe in Rotherham, England, used new shapes equally the basis for the Rotherham plough, which too covered the moldboard with iron. By 1770, it was the cheapest and all-time plough available. It spread to Scotland, America, and French republic. It may have been the first plough to be widely built in factories and the first to be commercially successful.
• In 1789 Robert Ransome started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St. Margaret'southward Ditches. Equally a result of a mishap in his foundry, a cleaved mold caused molten metal to come into contact with common cold metallic, making the metal surface extremely difficult — chilled casting — which he advertised every bit "self sharpening" ploughs and received patents for his discovery.
• James Pocket-sized further avant-garde the design. Using mathematical methods, he experimented with various designs until he arrived at a shape cast from a single piece of iron, an comeback on the Scots plough of James Anderson of Hermiston.
• The seed drill was invented in China in the 2d century BCE and introduced to Italia in the mid-16th century. Showtime attributed to Camillo Torello, information technology was patented by the Venetian Senate in 1566. In England, information technology was further refined by Jethro Tull in 1701. Tull'south drill was a mechanical seeder that sowed efficiently at the right depth and spacing and then covered the seed and then that it could grow. However, seed drills of this and successive types were expensive, unreliable, and fragile.
• A threshing machine or thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain: removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. Mechanization of this procedure removed a substantial amount of drudgery from farm labor. The starting time threshing machine was invented circa 1786 past the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle, and the subsequent adoption of such machines was 1 of the earlier examples of the mechanization of agriculture.

Key Terms

• threshing car: A piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so past beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. The first model was invented circa 1786 by the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle, and the subsequent adoption of such machines was i of the earlier examples of the mechanization of agriculture.
• plough: A tool or farm implement for initial tillage of soil in grooming for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for virtually of recorded history, although written references do not appear in English until c. 1100, subsequently which it is referenced frequently. Its construction was highly advanced during the Agricultural Revolution.
• seed drill: A device that sows the seeds for crops past metering out individual seeds, positioning them in the soil, and covering them to a certain average depth. It sows the seeds at equal distances and proper depth, ensuring they get covered with soil and are saved from being eaten by birds. Invented in China in the 2nd century BCE, it was advanced by Europeans in the 16th and 17th centuries, becoming an important development of the Agricultural Revolution.

Agricultural Revolution: Mechanization

The mechanization and rationalization of agriculture was a central factor of the Agronomical Revolution. New tools were invented and old ones perfected to ameliorate the efficiency of various agricultural operations.

The basic turn with coulter, ploughshare, and moldboard remained in use for a millennium. Major changes in design did not get mutual until the Age of Enlightenment, when there was rapid progress. The Dutch caused the iron tipped, curved moldboard, adjustable depth plow from the Chinese in the early on 17th century. It had the ability to be pulled by ane or two oxen compared to the six or 8 needed past the heavy-wheeled northern European plough. The Dutch plough was brought to Britain by Dutch contractors hired to drain East Anglian fens and Somerset moors. The plow was extremely successful on wet, boggy soil, but soon was used on ordinary land. In 1730,  Joseph Foljambe in Rotherham, England, used new shapes every bit the basis for the Rotherham plough, which also covered the moldboard with iron. Dissimilar the heavy turn, the Rotherham (or Rotherham swing) plow consisted entirely of the coulter, moldboard, and handles. By the 1760s Foljambe was making big numbers of these ploughs in a factory outside of Rotherham, using standard patterns with interchangeable parts. The plough was piece of cake for a blacksmith to make and by the terminate of the 18th century it was existence made in rural foundries. By 1770, it was the cheapest and best plough available. It spread to Scotland, America, and France. Information technology may have been the commencement turn to be widely built in factories and the first to exist commercially successful.

In 1789 Robert Ransome, an iron founder in Ipswich, started casting ploughshares in a disused malting at St. Margaret'south Ditches. Every bit a result of a mishap in his foundry, a cleaved mold acquired molten metallic to come into contact with common cold metallic, making the metal surface extremely hard — chilled casting — which he advertised as "cocky sharpening" ploughs and received patents for his discovery. In 1789, Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies was producing 86 plough models for different soils.

James Small-scale further advanced the blueprint. Using mathematical methods, he experimented with various designs until he arrived at a shape bandage from a unmarried piece of atomic number 26, an improvement on the Scots plough of James Anderson of Hermiston. A single-piece bandage iron plough was too developed and patented past Charles Newbold in the United States. This was again improved on by Jethro Wood, a blacksmith of Scipio, New York, who made a 3-part Scots Plough that immune a cleaved piece to be replaced.

The seed drill was introduced from Mainland china, where it was invented in the 2nd century BCE, to Italy in the mid-16th century. Starting time attributed to Camillo Torello, it was patented by the Venetian Senate in 1566. A seed drill was described in detail by Tadeo Cavalina of Bologna in 1602. In England, information technology was further refined by Jethro Tull in 1701. Before the introduction of the seed drill, the common exercise was to plant seeds past dissemination (evenly throwing) them across the basis by manus on the prepared soil and so lightly harrowing the soil to cover the seed. Seeds left on peak of the ground were eaten by birds, insects, and mice. In that location was no control over spacing and seeds were planted also shut together and also far apart. Alternately seeds could be laboriously planted one past one using a hoe and/or a shovel. Cutting downward on wasted seed was important because the yield of seeds harvested to seeds planted at that fourth dimension was around iv or five. Tull's drill was a mechanical seeder that sowed efficiently at the correct depth and spacing and and then covered the seed and then that it could grow. Withal, seed drills of this and successive types were both expensive and unreliable, as well as frail. They would not come into widespread use in Europe until the mid-19th century. Early drills were small enough to be pulled past a single horse, and many of these remained in use into the 1930s.

Jethro Tull's seed drill (Horse-hoeing husbandry, 4th edition, 1762.

In his 1731 publication, Tull described how the motivation for developing the seed-drill arose from conflict with his servants. He struggled to enforce his new methods upon them, in role because they resisted the threat to their position as laborers and skill with the plow. He as well invented mechanism for the purpose of conveying out his system of drill husbandry, about 1733. His first invention was a drill-plough to sow wheat and turnip seed in drills, three rows at a time.

A threshing car or thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain: removes the seeds from the stalks and husks by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshing was done by hand with flails and was very laborious and time-consuming, taking about one-quarter of agricultural labor past the 18th century. Mechanization of this process removed a substantial corporeality of drudgery from farm labor. The first threshing car was invented circa 1786 by the Scottish engineer Andrew Meikle and the subsequent adoption of such machines was one of the earlier examples of the mechanization of agriculture.

The Enclosure Human activity

Enclosure, or the procedure that ended traditional rights on common state formerly held in the open field system and restricted the use of land to the owner, is one of the causes of the Agricultural Revolution and a key factor backside the labor migration from rural areas to gradually industrializing cities.

Learning Objectives

Interpret the consequences of enclosure

Key Takeaways

Key Points

• Common land is owned collectively past a number of persons or by one person with others holding certain traditional rights, such as to let their livestock to graze upon it, collect firewood, or cut turf for fuel. A person who has a correct in or over common land jointly with others is called a commoner.
• Most of the medieval common land of England was lost due to enclosure. In English social and economic history, enclosure was the process that concluded traditional rights on common land formerly held in the open field system. One time enclosed, these land uses were restricted to the possessor, and the land ceased to be for the apply of commoners.
• The process of enclosure became a widespread feature of the English agronomical landscape during the 16th century. By the 19th century, unenclosed commons became largely restricted to large rough pastures in mountainous areas and relatively small residual parcels of land in the lowlands.
• Enclosure could be accomplished by buying the ground rights and all mutual rights to accomplish exclusive rights of apply, which increased the value of the land. The other method was by passing laws causing or forcing enclosure, such as parliamentary enclosures. The latter process was sometimes accompanied by force, resistance, and bloodshed, and remains amongst the nearly controversial areas of agricultural and economic history in England.
• Parliamentary enclosures consolidated strips in the open fields into more than compact units and enclosed much of the remaining pasture commons or wastes. They commonly provided commoners with some other land in bounty for the loss of common rights, although this was oft of poor quality and limited extent. They were too used for the division and privatization of common "wastes" (in the original sense of uninhabited places). Voluntary enclosure was likewise frequent at that time.
• Enclosure faced a bully deal of pop resistance because of its furnishings on the household economies of smallholders and landless laborers, who were often pushed out of the rural areas. Enclosure is likewise considered i of the causes of the Agricultural Revolution. Enclosed land was under command of the farmer, who was costless to adopt amend farming practices. Following enclosure, crop yields and livestock output increased while at the same fourth dimension productivity increased plenty to create a surplus of labor. The increased labor supply is considered one of the factors facilitating the Industrial Revolution.

Key Terms

• common land: A arrangement of land ownership, known also equally the common field system, in which country is owned collectively by a number of persons, or by 1 person with others holding certain traditional rights, such as to permit their livestock to graze upon it, collect firewood, or cut turf for fuel.
• Industrial Revolution: The transition to new manufacturing processes in the menstruation from nearly 1760 to between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand product methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing apply of steam ability, the evolution of machine tools, and the rise of the factory system.
• Enclosure: The legal process in England during the 18th century of enclosing a number of small landholdings to create ane larger subcontract. Once enclosed, use of the state became restricted to the possessor and it ceased to be common state for communal use. In England and Wales, the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient arrangement of arable farming in open up fields.
• Enclosure Acts: A series of United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland Acts of Parliament which enclosed open fields and mutual state in the land, creating legal property rights to country that was previously considered common. Between 1604 and 1914, over five,200 private acts were put into place, enclosing 6.8 one thousand thousand acres.
• Agricultural Revolution: The unprecedented increase in agronomical production in Britain due to increases in labor and country productivity betwixt the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770 and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world.

Background: Common Land

Common state is owned collectively by a number of persons, or by ane person with others holding certain traditional rights, such as to let their livestock to graze upon information technology, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person who has a correct in or over common land jointly with others is called a commoner. Originally in medieval England, the common was an integral part of the estate and thus role of the manor held by the lord of the manor under a feudal grant from the Crown or a superior peer, who in turn held his land from the Crown, which owned all land. This manorial organisation, founded on feudalism, granted rights of land use to different classes. These would be appurtenant rights, meaning the ownership of rights belonged to tenancies of particular plots of land held inside a estate. A commoner would be the person who for the time being occupied a particular plot of country. Some rights of mutual were said to exist in gross, or unconnected with tenure of land. This was more usual in regions where commons were extensive, such as in the high ground of Northern England or on the Fens, but also included many village greens across England and Wales.

Enclosure

Most of the medieval common land of England was lost due to enclosure. In English language social and economic history, enclosure or inclosure was the procedure that ended traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay or grazing livestock on common country formerly held in the open field organization. Once enclosed, these uses of the land became restricted to the owner and the state cased to be for the use of commoners. In England and Wales, the term is also used for the procedure that ended the ancient system of arable farming in open fields. Under enclosure, such land was fenced (enclosed) and deeded or entitled to one or more owners. The process of enclosure became a widespread feature of the English agricultural landscape during the 16th century. By the 19th century, unenclosed eatables were largely restricted to large areas of rough pasture in mountainous places and relatively small residuum parcels of state in the lowlands.

Enclosure could be accomplished by buying the ground rights and all common rights to accomplish exclusive rights of apply, which increased the value of the land. The other method was by passing laws causing or forcing enclosure, such as parliamentary enclosure. The latter process of enclosure was sometimes accompanied by strength, resistance, and mortality, and remains amidst the most controversial areas of agronomical and economical history in England.

Implementation of the Acts

The more productive enclosed farms meant that fewer farmers were needed to work the same land, leaving many villagers without land and grazing rights. Many moved to the cities in search of work in the emerging factories of the Industrial Revolution. Others settled in the English colonies. English language Poor Laws were enacted to assistance these newly poor. Some practices of enclosure were denounced past the Church and legislation was drawn upwards confronting it. Yet, the large, enclosed fields were needed for the gains in agricultural productivity from the 16th to 18th centuries. This controversy led to a series of regime acts, culminating in the Full general Enclosure Act of 1801, which sanctioned large-scale land reform.

The Act of 1801 was one of many parliamentary enclosures that consolidated strips in the open fields into more meaty units and enclosed much of the remaining pasture commons or wastes. Parliamentary enclosures normally provided commoners with some other land in compensation for the loss of common rights, although frequently of poor quality and limited extent. They were also used for the sectionalization and privatization of common "wastes" (in the original sense of uninhabited places), such as fens, marshes, heathland, downland, and moors. Voluntary enclosure was also frequent at that time.

Conjectural map of a medieval English language manor. The part allocated to "common pasture" is shown in the north-e section, shaded dark-green. William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1923.

After 1529, the problem of untended farmland disappeared with the rising population. There was a desire for more than arable land along with animosity toward the tenant-graziers with their flocks and herds. Increased demand along with a scarcity of tillable country caused rents to ascent dramatically in the 1520s to mid-century. There were pop efforts to remove one-time enclosures and much legislation of the 1530s and 1540s concerns this shift. Aroused tenants impatient to reclaim pastures for cultivation were illegally destroying enclosures.

Consequences

The main benefits to large land holders came from increased value of their own country, not from expropriation. Smaller holders could sell their country to larger ones for a higher cost postal service enclosure. Protests against parliamentary enclosures continued, sometimes too in Parliament, frequently in the villages affected, and sometimes equally organized mass revolts. Enclosed land was twice equally valuable, a price that could be sustained by its higher productivity. While many villagers received plots in the newly enclosed estate, for pocket-sized landholders this compensation was not e'er plenty to beginning the costs of enclosure and fencing. Many historians believe that enclosure was an of import factor in the reduction of small landholders in England every bit compared to the Continent, although others believe that this process began earlier.

Enclosure faced a smashing deal of popular resistance considering of its furnishings on the household economies of smallholders and landless laborers. Mutual rights had included non just the right of cattle or sheep grazing, but also the grazing of geese, foraging for pigs, gleaning, berrying, and fuel gathering. During the period of parliamentary enclosures, employment in agriculture did not fall, but failed to go on step with the growing population. Consequently, large numbers of people left rural areas to motility into the cities where they became laborers in the Industrial Revolution.

Enclosure is considered 1 of the causes of the British Agricultural Revolution. Enclosed state was under control of the farmer, who was costless to adopt ameliorate farming practices. There was widespread agreement in gimmicky accounts that turn a profit making opportunities were better with enclosed land. Post-obit enclosure, crop yields and livestock output increased while at the same time productivity increased enough to create a surplus of labor. The increased labor supply is considered ane of the factors facilitating the Industrial Revolution.

Effects of the Agricultural Revolution

The increment in agricultural production and technological advancements during the Agricultural Revolution contributed to unprecedented population growth and new agronomical practices, triggering such phenomena as rural-to-urban migration, development of a coherent and loosely regulated agricultural marketplace, and emergence of backer farmers.

Learning Objectives

Infer some major social and economic outcomes of the Agricultural Revolution

Central Takeaways

Central Points

• The Agricultural Revolution in Great britain proved to be a major turning point, allowing population to far exceed before peaks and sustain the country'due south rise to industrial preeminence. It is estimated that total agricultural production grew 2.7-fold between 1700 and 1870 and output per worker at a similar rate. The Agronomical Revolution gave Great britain the most productive agriculture in Europe, with 19th-century yields as much as eighty% higher than the Continental average.
• The increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from five.5 one thousand thousand in 1700 to over nine million by 1801, although domestic production gave style increasingly to food imports in the 19th century every bit population more than tripled to over 32 1000000.
• The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labor force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended. The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a crusade of the Industrial Revolution. As enclosure deprived many of access to land or left farmers with plots likewise small and of poor quality, increasing numbers of workers had no choice but migrate to the urban center. However, mass rural flight did non take place until the Industrial Revolution was already underway.
• The most important evolution between the 16th century and the mid-19th century was the evolution of private marketing. By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast bulk of agricultural production was for market rather than for the farmer and his family unit.
• The adjacent phase of evolution was trading between markets, requiring merchants, credit and forrard sales, and knowledge of markets and pricing every bit well every bit of supply and demand in different markets. Eventually the marketplace evolved into a national one driven by London and other growing cities. Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways.
• With the development of regional markets and eventually a national market aided by improved transportation infrastructures, farmers were no longer dependent on their local markets. This freed them from having to lower prices in an oversupplied local market and the inability to sell surpluses to distant localities experiencing shortages. They too became less bailiwick to price fixing regulations. Farming became a business rather than solely a ways of subsistence.

Key Terms

• enclosure: The legal process in England during the 18th century of enclosing a number of minor landholdings to create one larger farm. Once enclosed, utilise of the country became restricted to the possessor and ceased to exist mutual land for communal use. In England and Wales, the term is also used for the process that ended the ancient system of abundant farming in open fields.
• Agricultural Revolution: The unprecedented increase in farm production in Great britain due to increases in labor and land productivity between the mid-17th and late 19th centuries. Agricultural output grew faster than the population over the century to 1770 and thereafter productivity remained among the highest in the world.
• Industrial Revolution: The transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from about 1760 to between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from manus production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron product processes, improved efficiency of water power, the increasing utilize of steam power, the development of motorcar tools and the rise of the factory arrangement.
• rural flight: The migratory blueprint of peoples from rural areas into urban areas. It is urbanization seen from the rural perspective.

Significance of the Agronomical Revolution

The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning signal, allowing population to far exceed before peaks and sustain the state's ascent to industrial preeminence. Although bear witness-based advice on farming began to appear in England in the mid-17th century, the overall agricultural productivity of Britain grew significantly only later. Information technology is estimated that total agricultural production grew 2.vii-fold between 1700 and 1870 and output per worker at a similar rate. The Agricultural Revolution gave Britain at the fourth dimension the most productive agriculture in Europe, with 19th-century yields as much as 80% higher than the Continental average. Fifty-fifty as late every bit 1900, British yields were rivaled simply past Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium. But Great britain's lead eroded equally European countries experienced their own agricultural revolutions, raising grain yields on average by threescore% in the century preceding World War I. Interestingly, the Agricultural Revolution in United kingdom did non result in overall productivity per hectare of agriculture that would rival productivity in China, where intensive cultivation (including multiple annual cropping in many areas) had been practiced for many centuries. Towards the end of the 19th century, the substantial gains in British agricultural productivity were chop-chop commencement by competition from cheaper imports, fabricated possible past the exploitation of colonies and advances in transportation, refrigeration, and other technologies.

Social Impact

The increase in the food supply contributed to the rapid growth of population in England and Wales, from 5.v million in 1700 to over 9 million by 1801, although domestic production gave mode increasingly to food imports in the 19th century equally population more than tripled to over 32 one thousand thousand. The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labor force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended. The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited every bit a cause of the Industrial Revolution. Equally enclosure deprived many of access to land or left farmers with plots besides small and of poor quality, increasing numbers of workers had no choice but drift to the city. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, even so, rural flight occurred in mostly localized regions. Pre-industrial societies did not experience big rural-urban migration flows, primarily due to the inability of cities to support large populations. Lack of big employment industries, high urban mortality, and low food supplies all served every bit checks keeping pre-industrial cities much smaller than their modern counterparts. While the improved agronomical productivity freed up workers to other sectors of the economy, it took decades of the Industrial Revolution and industrial evolution to trigger a truly mass rural-to-urban labor migration. Equally food supplies increased and stabilized and industrialized centers moved into identify, cities began to support larger populations, sparking the starting time of rural flight on a massive scale. In England, the proportion of the population living in cities jumped from 17% in 1801 to 72% in 1891.

Drawing of a horse-powered thresher from a French dictionary (published in 1881).

The evolution and advocacy of  tools and machines decreased the need for rural labor. That together with increasingly restricted access to country forced many rural workers to migrate to cities, eventually supplying the labor demand created past the Industrial Revolution.

New Agricultural Market Trends

Markets were widespread by 1500. These were regulated and non free. The most important development between the 16th century and the mid-19th century was the evolution of private marketing. By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast majority of agricultural production was for market place rather than for the farmer and his family. The 16th-century market radius was near 10 miles, which could support a boondocks of 10,000. High railroad vehicle transportation costs made information technology uneconomical to transport commodities very far outside the market radius by road, more often than not limiting shipment to less than twenty or 30 miles to market place or to a navigable waterway.

The side by side phase of evolution was trading betwixt markets, requiring merchants, credit and forwards sales, and knowledge of markets and pricing as well as of supply and demand in different markets. Somewhen the market evolved into a national one driven past London and other growing cities. By 1700, there was a national market for wheat. Legislation regulating middlemen required registration, and addressed weights and measures, fixing of prices, and collection of tolls by the government. Market regulations were eased in 1663, when people were allowed some self-regulation to hold inventory, only it was forbidden to withhold commodities from the market in an endeavour to increment prices. In the late 18th century, the idea of "cocky regulation" was gaining acceptance. The lack of internal tariffs, community barriers, and feudal tolls made Britain "the largest coherent market in Europe."

Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways. Route transport chapters grew from threefold to fourfold from 1500 to 1700. By the early 19th century it cost equally much to transport a ton of freight 32 miles past railroad vehicle over an unimproved road equally information technology did to ship it three,000 miles across the Atlantic.

With the evolution of regional markets and somewhen a national marketplace aided past improved transportation infrastructures, farmers were no longer dependent on their local markets and were less subject to having to sell at depression prices into an oversupplied local market place and not being able to sell their surpluses to distant localities that were experiencing shortages. They also became less bailiwick to price fixing regulations. Farming became a business rather than solely a means of subsistence. Under free marketplace capitalism, farmers had to remain competitive. To exist successful, they had to become effective managers who incorporated the latest farming innovations in guild to be low-toll producers.

antonanking.blogspot.com

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-worldhistory/chapter/the-agricultural-revolution/

Share this post