Agriculture Revolution in Europe

 Introduction

The changes in the position of agriculture may really be considered a part of the Industrial Revolution. Even though agriculture was the main occupation till the 17th century, no improvements had been introduction or made. The same methods and tools of ages gone by continued to be used. New crops were only introduced in Europe after the voyages of discovery and the crusades. The main reasons for the significant absence of improvements was due to a lack of demand for agricultural products beyond the home consumption. the demand for agricultural products only began with the coming into existence of large cities.

Character of the Revolution

The agricultural revolution brought in its wake the introduction of machinery, new crops, drainage of waste lands, the use of fertilisers, and improvement in stock breeding. It also led to the enclosure of the common land and the emphasis of land into large holdings. 

During the period 1500-1800, almost half the working population continued to be still engaged in agriculture and even the non-agriculture aspects of the pre-industrial economy was interrelated to rural activities. 

Before 1800, farming in most parts of Europe was heavily based in favour of corn production during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the cultivation of buckle wheat had become more common in western and central Europe and rice and maize were introduced in southern Europe. The change occurred only when potatoes began to be grown in large quantities on the fields.

 The production was limited because of lack of labour force and the lack of technical development and improvements. The agriculture produce was in reality meant only for the total number of farm workers and vice versa.

Production was more or less the same on all the farms, though obviously the small farms were less efficient than the bigger ones. The production a "fixed" amount had to be kept for "seeds" and for domestic consumption, for feeding the household. Sharp price fluctuation were a predominant feature of the grain prices during the 16th to 18th century.

Reclamation of Land

Part of the reclamation of land during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was in reality the recovery of ground that had been abandoned during the agricultural depression and the decline in population after 1300. During the seventeenth century efforts to open up new lands came to an end in almost all European countries. After 1660 drainage and reclamation in the Netherlands and East Germany continued on a limited scale. Historical studies have revealed that the number of deserted village in the seventeenth century  France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany, England and Poland was not as large as that in Middle Ages. The shrinkage of cultivable land was a general European phenomenon and the wars together with the plague during the seventeenth century were not the only contributory factors. A decline in acreage, accompanied by a fall in prices can also be explained by a fall in population and this has been established by the available demographic data.

In the German lands, so badly devastated in the thirty years war, an improvement was noticeable during the last twenty years of the seventeenth century and in other countries like the Austria, Netherlands, France, Russia and England reclamation of land began only during the second half of the eighteenth century.

During the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century agriculture was not on the same level everywhere in Europe, small intensive areas of farming were to be found everywhere. What is not certain is whether the situation in 1800 differed greatly from that in 1500, Certain areas of intensive farming had suffered badly in Germany as consequence of the Thirty Years War while the situation had definitely improved in England and some of the Dutch province and during the eighteenth century in Northern Germany.

A lot has been said about the agricultural revolution which took place in the eighteenth century. The actual development really increased in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and this was on much large scale.

  During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries some of the  some of the following system of tillage were practiced side by side ; 

 1)  Temporary cultivation still used in countries like Ireland, Sweden and Scotland.  2) The two course rotation in Southern France and England.  3) Three course rotation with two years follow. 4) Three course rotation with one year follow. 5) A rotation of four, five, six or more course generally combined with the cultivation of pulses as in England and the Netherlands and 6) Convertible husbandry in which the land was cultivated for several years and then converted into pastures for period of time as in Flanders, England, Alsace, Holstein.

Further during the 17th and 18th centuries the production of grain and its demand were affected by the cultivation of good crops that could replace corn, for example rice, maize, potatoes. Potatoes were hardly known in some countries of Europe around the year the 1750. By the end of 18th century, potatoes had become a part of the staple diet. what is interesting to note is that in some areas potatoes replaced pulses and not corn and even beans, peas and carrots lost their importance.

It  appears that rice was  first cultivated in North Italy in the  second half of the seventeenth century. After 1730 Europe imported large quantities of rice from North America.  Maize became popular in Italy after 1630 and had become an  important part of the diet of the Portuguese by the second half of the seventeenth century and an important item of the  Spanish cereal cultivation by the middle of 18th century.

The Enclosures and Allied Changes

The outstanding features of medieval agriculture were the open   fields and fragmented land holding together with collective constraints. The process of consolidation of land holding is by no means a recent invention. In fact there  had been numerous examples, of consolidation in many countries and throughout the centuries. The most commonly mentioned are the enclosures in England but similar process had been applied in varying degrees in many other parts of Europe.

What led to the desire for consolidation was the inclination to introduce new agricultural techniques that had begun to be applied in England. 

The initiative in the enclosure movement in England was taken by the landlords. The landed gentry that dominated the English Parliament realized that they could make larger profits if the small farms were combined to make large farms which would profitably use new agricultural methods. Beginning about 1790 laws Enclosure Acts - were passed to turn public land to private ownership and landlords were able to secure control of 7000,00 acres of land.  Scientific farming and machinery had helped them little. Who had used the common pastures for pasturage were deprived of their of their rights. 

The second largest success of land consolidation was in Scandinavia followed by Northern Germany. The compelling motive was an increased demand for agricultural products and the desire to increase production. In both case the drive towards consolidation was promoted by the Government.

Crop Rotation and Scientific Farming  

Since the earliest times the process of agriculture  had been hampered by an important physical factor, the tendency of the soil to lose its fertility under continuous cultivation. Prior to the modern period, the methods employed to check this tendency were principally three viz. the rise of annual manure, the practice of following and the alternation of crops. Owing to the absence of winter roots and the consequent difficulty of keeping animals alive during the winter season the medieval farmers could not rear more than a few cattle. The 18th century when the introduction of green crops and winter roots made it possible to dispense with the following practice. It led to a complete revolution in the art and practices of agriculture and indirectly produced important changes in the social and economic position of the cultivators. The traditional three course rotation gave way to a new four course rotation.

The new plough based on the light English iron, ploughs was the most significant element of improvement in agricultural technology. Along with the plough, the harrow was also improved. It was Jethro Tull an Englishmen who blazed a trail in scientific agriculture. He invented a seed drill which planted seeds uniformly. He also advised farmers to use a horse pulled cultivation to loosen up the soil and pull up weeds.

Although the iron plough had begun to ne used, it was an American, Cyrus McCormick who invented the reaper in 1834. It was a boon for the agriculturists and soon threshers and cultivators began to be used. The English government established a Board of Agriculture (1793) to encourage scientific farming. Many of the new ideas were popularised by Arthur Young (1741-1820)  by means of his writings. As a consequence of the Agricultural revolution departments of agriculture and agriculture colleges were established.

The 18th century agricultural experimenters had tried to build up soil fertility by the use of crop rotations with nitrogen accumulating crops and by the intensive use of animal manure. Around 1840 a German Von Liebig in Germany, Boussingault in France, Lawes in England showed how chemistry could convert poor soil into a fertile one. They also almost simultaneously found formulas for chemical manures which led to the modern fertilizer industry.

Other Countries.

Progress in agriculture was also made in other European countries, though till 1840 only England had made much of the Industrial Revolution. France lacked sufficient coal and iron. Besides the French Revolution had made France a land of small farmers even though the manorial system and serfdom had been done away with before the outbreak of the revolution of 1789. The physiocrats had drawn attention to the basic value of agriculture.

In Germany, the Junker class devoted special attention to agriculture, economic planning was encouraged, land was enclosed. Germany in reality began to make starling progress after it was unified in 1791. As Britain led the old Industrial Revolution in Europe so did Germany lead the new. The Germans in order to increase their agricultural production made extensive use of science.

Spain and Italy remained agriculturally backward countries, as they were handicapped   by a somewhat feudal land holding system and primitive methods.

Most of Eastern Europe, however, continued to lag behind both in agricultural and industrial Revolution.

The agriculture revolution in western Europe during the 16th to 18th centuries led us on to the Technological  Revolution which started developments that were destined to effect almost all aspects of human being.