ÿþ<html> <head> <title> WHKMLA : Historical Dictionaries : Agricultural Revolution </title> <!-- copyright Alexander Ganse, 2005 --> </head> <body bgcolor="lightblue" text="black" link="blue" vlink="red" alink="brown"> <style> <!-- A{ font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; font-face: arial; } --> </style> <DIV align ="center"> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../index.html"> <img src = "../../whkmla2.jpg" border = "0"></a></TD></TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width = "150" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> Timeline </b></font></TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../timelines/nhb/tlagrrev.html"> <img src = "../../region/arrowleft.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"> </a></TD> <TD align = "center" valign = "center"> <A HREF = "../../timelines/nhb.html"> <img src = "../banhistdic.jpg" border = "0"> </TD> <TD width = "36" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <img src = "../../region/arrowright.gif" width = "36" height = "36" border = "0"> </a></TD> <TD width = "100" height = "36" align = "center" valign = "center"> <font size = "2" face = "arial"><B> </b></font></TD></TR></TABLE> <font size = "3" face = "arial"><B><i>First posted on May 20th 2005 </i></b></font><BR><BR><BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "center" valign = "center" width = "900"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "5"><B> Historical Dictionaries : Agricultural Revolution </B></font> <BR> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"><i> http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histdic/nhb/hdagrrev.html </i></font> </B></font></TD></TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <B>Agricultural Revolution</B> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> There are three different applications of this term : (1) the emergence of agriculture in the 9th to 6th millennium B.C., (2) the transition from a medieval, traditional agricultural economy to a capitalist, managed agriculture (17th, 18th, early 19th century) and (3) modern agriculture, in which harvests have been greatly increased due to the usage of imported or synthetically produced fertilizer etc., from the mid 19th century onward. Here, definition no.2 is applied. <BR> Modern scholars (Overton) question the achievements of the persons historiography has ascribed to the leading figures of the English Agricultural Revolution of the 18th century. The fact that agriculture underwent significant changes, that Europe experienced a sustained population growth, that infectious diseases had less of an impact, remains, the latter to be explained by better nutrition of the overall population. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "bauernlegen"><B>Bauernlegen</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> a German term, directly translating to 'felling peasants'. In the regions to the East of the Elbe River, nobles used to contest the claim of free peasants on their land, and unless the latter were able to prove their ownership in courts (presided over by the very same nobles), appropriate the land in question. This practise was pursued from the 16th into the 18th century, in Prussia, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "croprotation"><B>Crop Rotation</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> in most areas of Europe, the main crop grown again and again was wheat. As a consequence, the soil was drained of those nutrients wheat needs most, and harvests were limited. In c.1730 the crop rotation system was first tried. Planting a succession of 4 different crops in four different years produced better harvests, because the system gave the soil the time necessary to recover. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "enclosure"><B>Enclosure</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> Land in the countryside traditionally was divided in two categories - farmland under intensive cultivation, the individual fields being private property, and 'the common land' - pasture, swamps, forest, which was communal property and under extensive cultivation. Mercantilist economists argued that extensive usage and communal property were inefficient and that the king should allocate these lands to private owners, who, in their own interest, would use the land in a more profitable way. In a number of cases the king did so, granting a deed to specific village commons to individuals (usually members of the gentry) who had a fence erected (hence 'enclosure'). This course of action was interpreted by the commoners as theft on the side of the king, as it deprived them of an essential source - fodder for their animals. This policy was pursued in England in the 17th century. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <B>Farm Machinery</B> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> English estate owners realized that one key to improving the profits lay in the reduction of manpower required in order to till the land and harvest the crops. The usage of machines was utilized to that effect. Jethro Tull's sewing machine (1701-1714) is an early example. The demand for agricultural machinery contributed to triggering the <A HREF = "hdindrev.html">Industrial Revolution</A>. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "landreclamation"><B>Land Reclamation</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> A mercantilist policy pursued in the 18th century (river regulation, for instance the Oderbruch regulation in Prussia 1747-1773); in the Netherlands in the early 17th century, merchants engaged in overseas trade invested their windfall profits in the draining of lakes (Beemster 1612, Purmer 1622, Wormer 1626, Schermer 1636). </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <B>Markenteilung</B> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> German term translating to 'partitioning the village common'. Implemented, following a royal edict, in Prussia's western territories in 1760-1790. In contrast to England's <A HREF = "hdagrrev.html#enclosure">enclosure</A>, every farmer of the village was allocated his share of the common. Driving motive the concept that land in private ownership would generate more profit (hence, taxes) than land in common ownership. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <B>New Crops</B> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> most importantly the potato, then the turnip etc. In the 18th century, these crops were not new to Europe, but hitherto rarely cultivated. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "potato"><B>Potato</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> Highly nutritious and easy to cultivate. Originally from America, brought to Europe in the 16th century, it became a popular crop in the later 18th century, propagated as the staple food for the poor in England in 1771. The name 'Potato Revolution' has been suggested as an alternative to 'Agricultural Revolution'. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <B>Selective Stockbreeding</B> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> a method which in the 18th century came to be used to improve the quality of livestock. Robert Bakewell 1760 is credited with having introduced it. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD width="200" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> <A NAME = "serfdom"><B>Serfdom</B></A> </font></TD> <TD width="480" valign="top" align="left"> <font size = "2"> Since the middle ages, most peasants had the status of serfs, i.e. they belonged to the land they tilled, they had no family names, required permission of their owner to marry etc. The owner, on the other hand, had the obligation to feed, clothe and lodge his serfs, year-round, not only in the labour-intensive sewing and harvesting periods. In the Netherlands there were few serfs in the first place; in England, the institution of serfdom was conveniently 'forgotten' in the 18th century, as estate owners strove to reduce the number of persons tilling their land. In most of continental Europe, the nobles, with less of an entrepreneurial spirit than their counterparts in England, insisted on their property rights over their serfs, and the issue of abolition of serfdom, brought up by enlightenment philosphers, was a major political issue, implemented in France in 1789, in Prussia in 1807, in Austria in 1848, in Russia in 1861. </font></TD> </TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> <TABLE border = "0" cellspace="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <TR> <TD align = "left" valign = "center" width = "700"> <font face = "Times Roman" size = "2"> PRINTED REFERENCE : <BR> </font></TD> </font></TD></TR></TABLE> <BR><BR> </DIV> </DIV> <DIV align="center"> <A href="mailto:aganse@hotmail.com"> <IMG src="../../email.gif" border="0"></a><BR> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR> <!-- Start of CH Counter --> <script type="text/javascript"> //<!-- // chCounter v2.0.0 // settings: cstatus = "active"; visible = "0"; path_to_counterfile = "http://www.zum.de/whkmla/counter/counter.php"; urlhp = "http://www.zum.de"; //////////////// url = unescape(location.href); file = url.substring(url.lastIndexOf(urlhp) + urlhp.length, url.length); file = (file.charAt(0) != "/") ? 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