The Agricultural Revolution In Britain

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The Agricultural Revolution in Britain has long been celebrated as a transformation of the traditional agricultural system that paved the way for the Industrial Revolution. It is a time period that has been studied by countless students across the continents and has been written and expanded upon by numerous historians and economic theorists. This fame, however, does not free the time period from debate; rather, the Agricultural Revolution has been the source of much controversy and contention among many who study it. The whole notion of the Agricultural Revolution as a key element of the Industrial Revolution has come into question. What I seek to suggest and argue in this essay is that agricultural change throughout the early modern period …show more content…

After the Black Plague in 1348, the effect of the population decrease was two-fold. On one hand, there was less need for grain. On the other hand, however, labor mobility increased because many farms were left unoccupied. In addition, the low population generated a high wage economy, which brought more of other goods. There was a consumer surplus on meat and dairy products, and land use shifted from grain production to animal grazing (Allen, R). As a result, there was still a high demand for food, which provided rural families with a stable income.
Because of the difficulty of agricultural work, however, it became crucial to transform the agricultural industry, which stimulated the Agricultural Revolution. According to Overton, the agricultural revolution was a time period of agricultural development that saw a colossal and fast increase in agricultural productivity and massive improvements in farm technology.
Growth in urbanization and manufacturing further led to agricultural revolutions because both movements increased demand for labor and wages, which put demand on agriculture to increase both productivity and …show more content…

Certain industries outshone others, however, in terms of accelerated rates of production. These new sources of energy helped entrepreneurs change the way their work was done and helped power the Industrial Revolution. Those cited as true successes of the Industrial Revolution in Britain are cotton, iron, and the transport industries, as they benefited greatly from the newly industrious means of production and labor force (Deane, P). The cotton industry is especially prided as one of the shining gems of the time period, as it went from a “traditional, loosely organized geographically dispersed, putting out system of production, dependent on hand tool technology, to a centrally managed and centrally located factory system using large scale machinery powered by inanimate sources of energy.”

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