1. British Agricultural Revolution 1600-1870
Dr Frances Richardson
conted.ox.ac.uk

2. 3) To evaluate recent scholarly findings and debates.
AIMS To study agricultural changes between 1600 and 1870 in a number of regions, to understand the technical, social and economic aspects that reshaped the British countryside and rural society.
‘Dryburgh’, J. Slezer, Theatrum Scotiae (1693)
OBJECTIVES
1) To gain a knowledge and understanding of agricultural change from
2) To examine the factors leading to the growth of capitalist agriculture and the social consequences.
3) To evaluate recent scholarly findings and debates.

3. Course overview
Course overview – British agriculture, population growth and the standard of living
The seventeenth-century yeoman’s agricultural revolution
Improved farming methods
The growth of landed estates and capitalist farms
Parliamentary enclosure in the lowlands
Expansion into the uplands
The role of agricultural improvers and estate agents
The social impact
The nineteenth-century second (or third?) agricultural revolution
The ‘Land Question’ and growth of allotments

4. Resources
Borrowing books – Continuing Education Library, Rewley House:
SOLO to search for books.
Register in person or online: for/weekly-class,-online,-summer-school-and-short-course- students/weekly-class-students
Online resources – articles and Bodleian e-books via computers in Student Resource Room or Conted Library,
for OU e-Journals
Course loans
Course website:

5. Portfolio of 2 to 3 short pieces of work total up to 1500 words, based on class discussion topics
OR One 1500 word essay –based on suggested topics or agree topic with Frances. Feedback can be sought on essay outline before end of term
OR A 10 minute presentation on a topic agreed with Frances
Deadline for submitting written work 6th April
Mark and feedback by 20th April
Assessment

6. Key issues
CRITERIA
Conceptual and empirical
Technical:
A wide variety of changes in farming techniques
Success in responding to the challenge of feeding a growing population
An increase in output brought about by rising productivity
Institutional:
Subsistence or capitalist farming
Private property rights, farm tenures
How workers were employed
What are the criteria for an agricultural revolution?
Why does agricultural revolution matter?
Old theories
Evidence for agricultural revolution
New theories
Phases of agricultural change
Actors

7. Why does agricultural revolution matter?
Population growth
Constraints on expansion of food production with traditional methods
The Malthusian trap
Transition to modern economic growth
Model for developing countries?
Impact of rising food prices on working class standard of living
Social impact of changing farming practice
Thomas Baker (1809–1869), Wheatfield, Newbold Farm, Leamington
(Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum)

8. Population growth

9. Constraints on food expansion with traditional agriculture
Poorer diet
Fewer livestock
Stint common
Reduce grazing area
Less manure
Lower crop yields
Fewer draught animals
Increase arable area
Land shortage
Population pressure
Reduce fallow
Plough marginal lands
Constraints on food expansion with traditional agriculture

10. The Malthusian trap?
Overpopulation occurs when population growth causes output per head to fall to subsistence level and rising mortality causes population growth to cease.
T. R. Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798)
War, famine, disease

11. Transition to modern economic growth
Historically unique growth after 1700
Accompanied by increased urbanisation after 1650
Key role of agriculture in industrialization:
Growing enough food for industrial and service sector workers
Main source of raw materials – oils, hides, textile fibres, fuel, fodder
Agricultural population the primary market for manufactures and services
Agricultural revolution made possible the industrial revolution
British economic growth – real GDP per capita
Source: B. A’Hearn, The British industrial revolution in a European mirror’, in R. Floud, J. Humphries and P. Johnson (eds.) , The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Vol. I, (2014), p. 2

12. Working class standard of living
Standard of living or real wage = wage / cost of living
How many days did a rural worker need to work to earn a subsistence family wage?
Malthusian crisis avoided, but workers did not benefit till 1830s, and rising inequality
Number of Working Days per Year of Rural Farm Workers, 1310‐1830
(dashed line = implied working year; solid line = implied working year 10 year moving average)
Source: Allen & Weisdorf, ‘Was there an industrious revolution?’

13. Social impact
Changing farming practice and institutional framework had profound implications for rural society:
Decline of small landowner and farmer
Increased proletarianisation – more agricultural labourers
Loss of resources from commons with enclosure – impact on living standards of workers, viability of small tradesmen
Rural to urban migration
Highland clearances forced migration
Thomas Faed, ‘The last of the clan’
CC BY-NC-ND Glasgow Museums

14. Old theories
Peasant farms and open fields stifled agricultural progress
‘Great men’ revolutionised farming
Enclosures and large farms created private property and capitalist agriculture – responsible for increased productivity
Increased productivity inferred from rent increases
Growth in agricultural productivity a pre- requisite for industrialization
Released labour from agriculture for industrial growth
Social consequences and increased inequality an inescapable consequence
Ina M. Sheldon-Williams (1876–1955),
Oxen Ploughing, the Cuckmere, Hastings Museum

15. British agronomist (British School, public domain)
‘Great men’
 Robert Bakewell.
 Robert Bakewell
(public domain)
‘Turnip Townsend’, Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, after Kneller, Public Domain
Jethro Tull (1674–1741),
British agronomist (British School, public domain)

16. Evidence for an agricultural revolution - productivity growth
Agricultural capital in England and Wales
Land, labour, capital and total factor productivity
Total factor productivity estimated to increase c. 70%
Cultivated land increased 25%
Wheat yields increased 45%, oat yields 84%
Landlords’ capital increased 107%
1700 £m
1850
% increase
Landlord’s capital
112
232
107%
Farmers’ capital:
- implements 10 14
40%
- farm horses 20 22
10%
- other livestock 41 85
Total capital
183
353
93%
Source: Allen (2004)

17. New theories New crops and rotations still important
Greater prominence for increased animal output
Increased emphasis on convertible husbandry and regional specialisation
Innovation possible in the open fields
Capitalist institutions such as large farms and enclosure were not a necessary condition for growth
Britain more industrialised by 1700 than previously thought – 37% of men worked in crafts and industry
Only 50% of men worked in agriculture c Critical shift of labour from agriculture to industry started well before the classic period of agricultural revolution
Food production must have increased significantly before 1700.
Agricultural productivity showed steady improvement over a longer period – less ‘revolutionary’

18. Timing Three main periods of ‘revolution’ in England Scotland
A 17c yeoman’s revolution (Bob Allen)
The 18c landlord’s revolution (Overton, Mingay)
The 19c ‘second agricultural revolution’ (Thompson)
Scotland
Rapid change in later 18c

19. Discussion topic:
Was there a ‘yeoman’s agricultural revolution’ in the seventeenth century? e.g.:
- What is the evidence from Blith for new agricultural methods in the 17c?
- Who were the yeomen farmers?
- Why does Overton argue for an 18c agricultural revolution?
- Why does Allen argue that agricultural productivity was increased more by a yeoman’s agricultural revolution in the 17c?
- What other major agricultural changes took place in the 17th century?
Prep for week 2: The seventeenth-century yeomen’s agricultural revolution

20. Short readings Longer readings
W. Blith, The English Improver Improved (1653), Introduction, Dip into Chapters III & XI,
G. R. Boyer Review of Allen’s Enclosure and the Yeoman, Journal of Economic History 53, no. 4 (1993).
Online in Conted. Library or Student Resources Room, 2 class copies.
G. Mingay, Review of Overton’s Agricultural Revolution,
M. Overton, BBC website ‘Agricultural Revolution in England 1500 – 1850’
Longer readings
R. C. Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective (Cambridge, 2009), Especially Ch. 3., ‘The agricultural revolution’.
Class copy. OR
*R. C. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’ (also Ch. 4, ‘The rise of the yeoman’)
Conted. Library or online in library or student resources room, class copy.
M. A. Havinden, 'Agricultural progress in open-field Oxfordshire', Agricultural History Review 9 (1961).
Online in Conted. Library or student resources room, 2 class copies.
A. Kussmaul, A General View of the Rural Economy of England (Cambridge, 1990), Ch. 4.
2 copies in Conted. Library.