Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy, 1500-1850This book is the first available survey of English agriculture between 1500 and 1850. It combines new evidence with recent findings from the specialist literature, to argue that the agricultural revolution took place in the century after 1750. Taking a broad view of agrarian change, the author begins with a description of sixteenth-century farming and an analysis of its regional structure. He then argues that the agricultural revolution consisted of two related transformations. The first was a transformation in output and productivity brought about by a complex set of changes in farming practice. The second was a transformation of the agrarian economy and society, including a series of related developments in marketing, landholding, field systems, property rights, enclosure and social relations. Written specifically for students, this book will be invaluable to anyone studying English economic and social history, or the history of agriculture. |
Common terms and phrases
acre acreage Agrarian History agricultural output agricultural production agricultural revolution animals barley Buckinghamshire bushels Butlin Cambridge cattle cent cereal yields changes chapter common rights commonfield system copyhold corn crop rotations cultivated discussed early sixteenth century eighteenth century enclosed English agriculture estates estimates evidence example fallow farm sizes field systems Figure fodder fodder crops grain grass harvest Hertfordshire husbandry important improvements increase labour productivity land productivity landholding landlords Leicestershire Lincolnshire livestock manor manorial middlemen Midlands Mingay nineteenth century nitrogen Norfolk Norfolk and Suffolk Norfolk four-course oats open-field output and productivity Overton Oxfordshire parish parliamentary enclosure Percentage permanent pasture plough property rights proportion rack rents relationships rents rise rural economy servants seventeenth century sheep sheep-corn sixteenth century small farmers social soil sown specialisation subsistence Suffolk Table teenth century tenants tenure Thirsk tion tithe turnips turnips and clover village WACY wages Warwickshire wheat wool Wrigley Yorkshire