Timeline

Historical Dictionary

First posted on June 24th 2005

Narratives : Agricultural Revolution and Protoindustrialization http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narragrrev.html

Traditional Agriculture : In the Late Middle Ages, in most of Europe farming conducted according to tradition. The size of individual farms had been fixed centuries before, roughly at a size one adult man could work, and which would feed a family. Noble estates usually consisted of a number of such individual farms. In some areas, individual farms were inherited from father to (eldest) son and could not be partitioned, thus maintaining viable economic entities. In other regions, farms were partitioned among the sons in case of inheritance, The High Middle Ages had seen the introduction of the iron plough, which had permitted the cultivation of heavy clay soil, and of the Field Rotation System. Basic fertilization was practised, for instance by taking sod from the village common and put it on the field. In the Early and High Middle Ages, farming mainly was subsistence farming; farmers would grow wheat (except where conditions made it impossible), a few vegetables and keep a few animals. The High and Late Middle Ages saw a process of specialization, facilitated by increasing trade - regions such as the Frisian coastlands and the Alpine high altitude meadows were used to graze cows, produced dairy products (cheese, butter); areas favoured by climate and soil produced wine or hop (a crop the usage of which helped conserve beer) or flax, of which linen was made. In most of Europe, wheat remained the main crop; in southern Spain and nothern Italy, rice was cultivated; southern (Muslim) Spain also had Mulberry Tree/Silk Cultivation. The Mediterranean region also produced olives and cork. The majority of Europe's farmers had been pressed into the status of serfdom; they were unfree, the serf farmers, their wives and children belonged to the land they lived on. However, thee was a class of free farmers, particularly strong in Scandinavia, in Frisia, in the Alps. England and Castile produced wool. Typical European villages consisted of three separate areas : (a) the village settlement, (b) the ring of farmland, partitioned in plots owned by individual farmers or their landlords, and (c) the village common, land commonly used and owned by the population of the village, a source of construction and firewood, as well as used as pasture for their animals. Incentives : the massive influx of silver from Latin America had a marked impact on the European economy. Silver coins dating back to the time before the conquest of the Aztec Empire are light-weight, thin, fragile. Silver coins minted after, by comparison, are heavy; for instance the St. Joachimstaler (first coined in 1518, weight 29 g), after which the Dollar is named. Relatively, silver, less scarce now, lost in value. Contemporary observers experienced this as a rise in prices, most notably in Portugal and Spain - inflation. High prices for agricultural products encouraged those who could offer them for sale with an incentive to produce more. The 16th and 17th centuries saw, in many countries, a conflict between monarch and diet. In England, King Charles I. attempted to rule without parliament 1628-1640, an early period of Absolutism. However, he had to forfeit additional taxation, which required the approval of parliament. Thus he needed to find new sources of revenue; one such source was the practice of Enclosure - the King granted a deed over a village common to a proprietor (usually the owner of a large estate), for the "purpose of improvement". The King's advisors argued that an individual owner would use the land more profitably than the community had done; the latter was deprived of an essential source of revenue, without compensation. In essence a form of land theft to momentarily fill the royal treasury. Agricultural Revolution : the term 'Agricultural Revoluton' is used for at least three different phenomena; the A.R. of the 16th to 18th centuries is best researched for England, which, together with the Dutch Republic, is believed to have been most influenced by it. Methods Expansion of farmland - in Holland (Dutch Republic) in 1612-1636, major lakes were drained (revenue from overseas trade invested in land reclamation); in Brandenburg-Prussia river regulation resulted in gaining additional, highly fertile farmland (Oderbruch 1747-1773). Extension of estates by (dubious) acquisition - Enclosures in England since the early 17th century, Bauernlegen in German regions east of the Elbe River 16th to 18th centuries Experiments with fertilization Introduction of new crops, most notably the Potato. Introduction of Crop Rotation In England, forgetting about the institution of Serfdom. Traditionally, the owner was not only the master over his serfs, but also obliged to nourish, clothe and lodge them. Agricultural Revolutiion era estate owners realized, that by maintaining only a core workforce on the land and hiring additional hands during the peak seasons (sewing, harvest), costs could be reduced and profits maximized. In the Dutch Republic, the institution of serfdom never has been strong; elsewhere in Europe estate owners held on to their rights over serfs. The reorganization of farms, with the intention to provide easy access to fields and meadows, reduce travelling and transportation time. This resulted in the dissolution of village hamlets and creating scattered farms; it was resisted by the villagers who valued their social life. Selective breeding. A literature addressing farmers and estate owners emerged (farmers' almanacs, books on agriculture). This explains why the Agricultural Revolution was centered on Protestant countries, which emphasized elementary education. Consequences : the 18th century saw an unprecedented, sustained population growth in Europe, partially credited to less destructive warfare and the absence of major killer epidemics. The latter is, at least to a good part, to be explained by better nutrition (the potato). In England, part of the farming population was (involuntarily) set free to pursue other trades. Desperate to find an income, some enrolled in the British Navy, others would form the workforce of the early Industrial Revolution. Others became vagabonds, beggars, thieves (Pauperism). Land owners, seeking to further reduce their costs, tried to invent farming machinery - an incentive for the Industrial Revolution. English language literature on the Agricultural Revolution emphasizes the imput of 18th century individuals such as Charles Townshend and Jethro Tull; recently, their contributon has been reevaluated as having had mixed results (Overton). Protoindustrialization : In the Middle Ages, craft production largely was limited to the cities, and within the cities to guilds. Since the middle of the 14th century, the guild economy stagnated. There were a few cases, in which innovations resulted in the emergence of a new urban craft, such as book printing (Gutenberg, since c.1450), which spread rapidly. The guild was regulating the size of enterprizes (one master, a certain number of journeymen and apprentices, workshop and lodging quarters all combined in one house) but often also allocated raw material, such as leather for shoemakers, to make sure that all master craftsmen had an outcome. The 16th century saw the emergence of entrepreneurs who escaped such restrictions by a number of means. One way was to obtain a privilege from the territorial lord allowing a person to establish a watermill in the countryside and establish a (family-size) factory there; on the tributaries of the Ruhr, Lenne and Wupper Rivers in Germany, some such early factories, dating back three or moe centuries and still inherited from father to son, are still operating, producing anvils, iron tools. Knives, nails and wire also used to be produced in enterprizes of that kind. Territorial lords, from the 16th century onward, were interested in increasing their revenue, and handing out privileges of this nature were one ay to do so. Other entrepreneurs went to the countryside, distributed spindles or weaving looms to farmers and cottagers, delivered wool or flax and bought up the yarn or delivered yarn and picked up the cloth. In mountain regions, wood-based industries emerged, such as the Black Forest Cuckoo Clock industry, the Saxon nutcracker and wooden figure industry, or glass factories (which required a lot of firewood). Then, production units requiring a larger number of employees emerged, called manufactures. The term emphasizes that production was mainly based on human labour (manus = Latin for 'hand'). Gobelin manufactures, Porcelain manufactures were usually located within cities, but not subject to guild regulation, and often owned by the territorial lord. In port cities, tobacco manufactures turned tobacco into cigars.

EXTERNAL FILES

Proto-Industrialization, from The Industrial Economy. Change and Opportunity in Society and Economy of Britain, c.1750-c.1830, posted by EHS Proto-Industrialization, 1990 paper posted by EHS Agrarian Change and the Modernization in the Netherlands and England, reference list posted by John H. Munro, UToronto

REFERENCE

Sheilagh Ogilvie, European Proto-Industrialization : An Introductory Handbook, Cambridge : UP 1996 Mark Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England. The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy 1500-1850, Cambridge : UP 1996 [G]

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