Re-establishing the english agricultural revolution

Agricultural History Review

Volumn 44, Issue 1, 1996, Pages 1-20

  Overton, Mark ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL HISTORY; AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION; EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; HISTORICAL STUDY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT;

UK, ENGLAND;

EID: 0030441298     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (170)

1. Recent reviews of the agricultural revolution include Mark Overton, 'Agricultural revolution? Development of the agrarian economy in early modern England', in A R H Baker and D Gregory, eds, Explorations in Historical Geography: Interpretative Essays, 1984, pp 118-39;
2. Mark Overton, idem, 'Agriculture', in John Langton and R J Morris, eds, Atlas of Industrializing Britain 1780-1914, 1986, pp 34-53;
3. J V Beckett, The Agricultural Revolution, Oxford, 1990;
4. Mark Overton, 'Agricultural revolution? England, 1540-1850', in A Digby and C H Feinstein, eds, New Directions in Economic and Social History, 1989, pp 9-21.
5. Further development of some of the arguments in this paper will be found in Mark Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy, 1500-1850, 1996.
6. R E Prothero, English Farming Past and Present, 1912;
7. P Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, 1928, pp 156-61;
8. J D Chambers and G E Mingay, The Agricultural Revolution, 1750-1880, 1966.
9. E Kerridge, The Agricultural Revolution, 1967, p 328.
10. E L Jones, 'Agriculture and economic growth in England, 1660-1750: agricultural change', Jnl Econ Hist, XXV, 1965, p 1;
11. E L Jones, idem, 'Agriculture, 1700-80', in R. Floud and D McCloskey, eds, The Economic History of Britain since 1700, 1981, p 85.
12. John's contributions include, A H John, 'The course of agricultural change, 1660-1760', in L S Pressnell, ed, Studies in the Industrial Revolution, 1960, pp 125-55;
13. A H John, idem, 'Agricultural productivity and economic growth in England, 1700-1760', Jnl Econ Hist, XXV, 1965, pp 19-34;
14. A H John, idem, 'Aspects of economic growth in the first half of the eighteenth century', Economica, new ser, 28, 1961, pp 176-90.
15. I Wallerstein, The Modern World-System II, 1980, p 263.
16. J Thirsk, ed, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, V, 1640-1750: Part II, Agrarian Change, 1985, pp xxx-xxxi.
17. G E Mingay, ed, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, 1750-1850, 1989, pp 953, 971.
18. R C Allen, 'The two English agricultural revolutions, 1450-1850', in Bruce M S Campbell and Mark Overton, eds, Land, Labour and Livestock; Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity, Manchester, 1991, p 236;
19. R C Allen, idem. Enclosure and the Yeoman. The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands 1450-1850, 1992, p 21.
20. G Clark, 'Agriculture and the industrial revolution, 1700-1850', in J Mokyr, ed, The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective, 1993, pp 246, 249.
21. Bruce M S Campbell and Mark Overton, 'A new perspective on medieval and early modern agriculture: six centuries of Norfolk farming, c.1250-c.1850', Past and Present, no 141, 1993, p 105.
22. Susanna Wade Martins, 'From black-face to white-face - an aspect of the agricultural revolution in Norfolk', Ag Hist Rev, 41, 1993, p 30.
23. T M Devine, Transformation of Rural Scotland: Social Change and the Agrarian Economy, 1660-1815, Edinburgh, 1994, p 165.
24. These are reviewed in Overton, 'Agricultural revolution? Development of the agrarian economy', pp 119-23.
25. Chambers and Mingay, Agricultural Revolution, pp 3-4;
26. Kerridge, Agricultural Revolution, p 332;
27. G E Mingay, 'Dr. Kerridge's "Agricultural Revolution": a comment', Ag Hist, 43, 1969, p 497;
28. R B Outhwaite, 'Rural England, 1500-1750', Histoire Sociale - Social History, 2, 1968, pp 85-97.
29. Agricultural productivity is discussed in Mark Overton and Bruce M S Campbell, 'Productivity change in European agricultural development', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp 1-50.
30. Eric Partridge, Usage and Abusage: A Guide to Good English, Harmondsworth, 1969, p 247 writes, 'productivity is a horrible word; use output'. The first part of the statement may be correct but the second is not: productivity and output are not equivalent.
31. D B Grigg, The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire, 1966, pp 190-1;
32. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, p 1;
33. Clark, 'Agriculture and the industrial revolution', p 229;
34. Overton, 'Agricultural revolution? England, 1540-1850', pp 18-19.
35. For a discussion of confused conceptions of labour productivity see N F R Crafts, 'Income elasticities of demand and the release of labour by agriculture during the British industrial revolution', Jnl European Econ Hist, 9, 1980, pp 167-8.
36. Overton, 'Agricultural revolution? England, 1540-1850', p 19, discusses some institutional changes.
37. Overton and Campbell, 'Productivity change in European agricultural development', pp 17-28.
38. King's figures are reported in C Whitworth, ed, The Political and Commercial Works of Charles d'Avenant, 5 vols, 1771, vol 2, p 177.
39. The relationship between the rate of growth of population and the rate of growth in food prices suggests that the 25-year period after 1786 marks a crucial turning point for agricultural production: see E A Wrigley and R S Schofield, The Population History of England 1541-1871: A Reconstruction, 1981, pp 402-12.
40. The productivity of labour is defined here as the output of agricultural products divided by the proportion of the work-force engaged in agriculture.
41. G Grantham, 'The growth of labour productivity in the production of wheat in the Cinq Grosses Fermes of France, 1750-1929', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, p 341;
42. Clark, 'Agriculture and the industrial revolution', p 228.
43. P Deane and W A Cole, British Economic Growth, 1688-1959, 2nd edn, 1967, pp 64-75.
44. For further details on these estimates see M Overton, 'Land and labour productivity in English agriculture, 1650-1850', forthcoming in Peter Mathias and John A Davis, eds, The Nature of Industrialization, V, Agriculture and Industrialization, 1994.
45. Population figures are from Wrigley and Schofield, Population History; import and export estimates are from a variety of sources and are very rough; they make an allowance for imports from Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
46. The combined value of the output of wheat, rye, barley, oats, potatoes, mutton, beef, pork, milk, butter, cheese, wool, tallow, and hides based on the estimates in J C Chartres, 'The marketing of agricultural produce', in Thirsk, Agrarian History of England and Wales, V, Part II, pp 406-502;
47. Gregory King's estimates in J Thirsk and J P Cooper, eds, Seventeenth Century Economic Documents, 1972, pp 782-3;
48. B A Holderness, 'Prices, productivity and output', in Mingay, Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, pp 84-189.
49. Prices are from G Clark, 'Labour productivity in English agriculture, 1300-1860', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour, and Livestock, pp 215-6
50. A H John, 'Statistical appendix', in Mingay, Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, pp 974-1009.
51. N F R Crafts, 'British economic growth 1700-1831: a review of the evidence', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXVI, 1983, pp 177-99;
52. R V Jackson, 'Growth and deceleration in English agriculture 1660-1790', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXVIII, 1985, pp 333-51.
53. H C Prince, 'The changing rural landscape, 1750-1850', in Mingay, Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, p 30;
54. see also D B Grigg, The Dynamics of Agricultural Change, 1982, p 185.
55. Mark Overton, 'The determinants of land productivity in early modern England', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, p 306 gives the figures for both Norfolk and Suffolk from 1580.
56. Table 1 is an abbreviation of tables in Overton, Agricultural Revolution in England: The Transformation of the Agrarian Economy.
57. Clark, 'Labour productivity in English agriculture', pp 215-6.
58. P Glennie, 'Measuring crop yields in early modern England', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, p 255;
59. P Glennie, idem, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture, 1550-1700: II - trends in crop yields and their determinants', Ag Hist Rev, 36, 1988, p 156;
60. Mark Overton, 'The diffusion of agricultural innovations in early modern England: turnips and clover in Norfolk and Suffolk 1580-1740', Trans Inst Brit Geogrs, new ser, 10, 1985, pp 205-21.
61. The figure of the area cultivated is a guess derived by working backwards from nineteenth-century estimates; the increase in wheat yields is assumed to be from an average of 10 bushels (roughly 0.25 tonnes) to 3 tonnes per acre.
62. Overton, 'The diffusion of agricultural innovations';
63. Overton, idem, 'Determinants of land productivity', pp 319-20;
64. Anon, 'Management of three farms in the county of Norfolk', Gentleman's Magazine, XXII, 1752, p 502.
65. M Williams, 'The enclosure and reclamation of waste land in England and Wales in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', Trans Inst Brit Geogrs, no 51, 1970, pp 58-69.
66. Many parishes enclosed by act of parliament would have had their tithes commuted at the time of enclosure. Thus the data in the tithe files may be biased towards open-field farming. Comparisons of farming in enclosed parishes with open parishes suggest the latter would have lower proportions of fodder crops like turnips and clover, slightly lower wheat yields, and significantly lower yields of barley and oats: Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman;
67. M E Turner, 'Agricultural productivity in England in the eighteenth century: evidence from crop yields', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXV, 1982, pp 489-510;
68. M E Turner, idem, 'English open fields and enclosures: retardation or productivity improvements?', Jnl Econ Hist, XLVI, 1986, pp 669-92.
69. The tithe file data are from R J P Kain, An Atlas and Index of the Tithe Files of Mid-Nineteenth-Century England and Wales, 1986, p 460;
70. the 1871 data are from BPP, 1871, LXIX, Agricultural Returns for Great Britain for 1871.
71. Pearson product moment coefficient. The county-based data are reproduced in R J P Kain and H C Prince, The Tithe Surveys of England and Wales, 1985, pp 226-8. Tithe district data are available from the ESRC Data Archive at the University of Essex.
72. Overton, 'Determinants of land productivity', pp 306, 313.
73. The 1801 data are discussed and presented in M E Turner, 'Arable in England and Wales: estimates from the 1801 crop return', Jnl Hist Geog, 7, 1981, pp 291-302.
74. The information in this paragraph is based on the quantitative evidence of crop proportions in J Whetter, Cornwall in the Seventeenth Century, Padstow, 1974, pp 46-7;
75. P Glennie, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture: I - patterns of agricultural production', Ag Hist Rev, 36, 1988, p 61;
76. C W Chalklin, Seventeenth-Century Kent, 1965, p 78;
77. J Thirsk, English Peasant Farming: The Agrarian History of Lincolnshire from Tudor to Recent Times, 1957, pp 39, 78, 89, 102, 136, 157, 173, 188, 224-5, 246, 280-1, 302-3;
78. Overton, 'The determinants of crop yields', p 306;
79. W G Hoskins, 'The Leicestershire farmer in the sixteenth century', in idem, ed, Essays in Leicestershire History, Liverpool, 1950, pp 123-83;
80. W G Hoskins, idem, 'The Leicestershire farmer in the seventeenth century', in idem, ed, Provincial England, 1963, pp 149-169;
81. M A Havinden, 'Agricultural progress in open field Oxfordshire', Ag Hist Rev, IX, 1961, p 81;
82. J A Yelling, 'Changes in crop production in east Worcestershire 1540-1867', Ag Hist Rev, 21, 1973, pp 18-34.
83. Campbell and Overton, 'New perspective on medieval and early modern agriculture', pp 38-105;
84. Yelling, 'Changes in crop production in east Worcestershire';
85. J A Yelling, 'Probate inventories and the geography of livestock farming: a study of east Worcestershire, 1540-1750', Trans Inst Brit Geogrs, no 51, 1970, pp 111-26;
86. Peter Edwards, 'The development of dairy farming on the north Shropshire plain in the seventeenth century', Midland History, 4, 1978, pp 175-89;
87. Glennie, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture, I'; John Broad, 'Alternate husbandry and permanent pasture in the Midlands 1650-1800', Ag Hist Rev, 28, 1980, pp 77-89.
88. Ann Kussmaul, A General View of the Rural Economy of England, 1533-1840, 1990.
89. Campbell and Overton, 'New perspective on medieval and early modern agriculture', p 61. Evidence from elsewhere derived from the sources in note 37 and the tithe files.
90. Robert S Shiel, 'Improving soil fertility in the pre-fertiliser era', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp 51-77.
91. Robert S Shiel, Land, Labour and Livestock, Ibid, pp 62-3.
92. Donald Woodward, ''An Essay on Manures': changing attitudes to fertilization in England, 1500-1800', in John Chartres and David Hey, eds, English Rural Society, 1500-1800: Essays in Honour of Joan Thirsk, 1990, pp 251-78.
93. Glennie, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture, II'; W M Matthew, 'Marling in British agriculture: a case of partial identity', Ag Hist Rev, 41, 1993, pp 97-110.
94. This figure is based on the work of G P H Chorley, 'The agricultural revolution in Northern Europe, 1750-1880: nitrogen, legumes and crop productivity', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXIV, 1981, pp 71-93, adjusted for England.
95. Overton, 'Determinants of land productivity', p 306. Figures for Norfolk alone are shown in Table 3.
96. For 1801 the yields are from Turner, 'Agricultural productivity in England in the eighteenth century', pp 489-510.
97. See footnote 33 for the 1830s. For 1871 the figures are from P G Craigie, 'Statistics of agricultural production', Jnl Roy Stat Soc, 46, 1883, pp 1-58
98. i is the acreage under crop i.
99. Mark Overton and Bruce M S Campbell, 'Norfolk livestock farming 1250-1740: a comparative study of manorial accounts and probate inventories', Jnl Hist Geog, 18, 1992, pp 377-96.
100. H I Moore, Grassland Husbandry, 3rd edn, 1946, p 17;
101. see also Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, pp 126-8.
102. G G S Bowie, 'Watermeadows in Wessex: a re-evaluation for the period 1640-1850', Ag Hist Rev, 35, 1987, pp 151-8.
103. Peter Wade-Martins, Black Faces: A History of East Anglian Sheep Breeds, Ashford, 1993;
104. J R Walton, 'The diffusion of improved sheep breeds in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Oxfordshire', Jnl Hist Geog, 9, 1983, pp 175-95.
105. J R Walton, 'The diffusion of the improved Shorthorn breed of cattle in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', Trans Inst Brit Geogrs, new ser, 9, 1984, pp 22-36.
106. See footnote 24 for sources for the calculation. In terms of 1850 prices the output of meat and dairy produce rose from £18.921 million in 1700 to £51.840 million in 1850.
107. Think and Cooper, Seventeenth Century Economic Documents, p 783;
108. Holderness, 'Prices, productivity and output', p 157.
109. Prices are from W Beveridge, Prices and Wages in England from the Twelfth to the Nineteenth Century: Vol I Price Tables: Mecantile Era, 1939, pp 144-7 (for mutton at Eton, 1600-1840) and pp 209-10 (for beef at Charterhouse, 1713-1830);
110. J E T Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol IV, 1882, p 333;
111. J E T Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol V, 1887, PP 347-53,
112. J E T Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol VII, 1902, p 284 (for beef 1562-1712 at Cambridge);
113. P J Bowden, 'Statistical appendix', in Thirsk, Agrarian History of England and Wales, IV, pp 839-45;
114. P J Bowden, idem, 'Statistical appendix', in Thirsk, Agrarian History of England and Wales, V, Part II, pp 843-6 (for wool 1500-1749);
115. D R Mitchell and P Deane, Abstract of British Historical Statistics, 1962, pp 494-5 (for wool 1750-59). Livestock prices from some 20,000 probate inventories for Durham, Hertfordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Worcestershire are also used.
116. J Wiseman, A History of the British Pig, 1986, pp 8-21.
117. E A Wrigley, 'Urban growth and agricultural change: England and the Continent in the early modern period', in idem. People, Cities and Wealth: The Transformation of Traditional Society, Oxford, 1987, P 170.
118. W G Hoskins, The Age of Plunder, 1976, pp 108-11.
119. G Marshall, 'The 'Rotheram' Plough: a study of a novel 18th century implement of agriculture', Tools and Tillage, III, 1978, pp 149-67.
120. E J T Collins, 'Harvest technology and labour supply in Britain, 1790-1870', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXII, 1969, pp 453-73;
121. J A Perkins, 'Harvest technology and labour supply in Lincolnshire and the East Riding of Yorkshire 1750-1850, part one', Tools and Tillage, 3, 1976, pp 46-58.
122. E H Hunt, 'Labour productivity in English agriculture, 1850-1914' Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XX, 1967, pp 285-8.
123. E A Wrigley, Continuity, Chance and Change: The Character of the Industrial Revolution in England, 1988, pp 35-45;
124. E A Wrigley, idem, 'Energy availability and agricultural productivity', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp 323-39.
125. Campbell and Overton, 'Norfolk livestock farming', p 383.
126. R C Allen, 'The growth of labour productivity in early modern English agriculture', Explorations in Econ Hist, XXV, 1988, pp 117-146;
127. R C Allen, idem. Enclosure and the Yeoman, pp 211-27.
128. P Solar and M Goossens, 'Agricultural productivity in Belgium and Ireland in the early nineteenth century', in Campbell and Overton, Land, Labour and Livestock, pp 372-6.
129. A Armstrong, 'Labour I: rural population growth, systems of employment, and incomes', in Mingay, Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, pp 671-95.
130. A Kussmaul, Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England, 1981.
131. C P Timmer, 'The turnip, the new husbandry, and the English agricultural revolution', Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXXXIII, 1969, pp 375-95.
132. Hunt, 'Labour productivity in English agriculture', pp 288-90.
133. K Tribe, Land, Labour and Economic Discourse, 1978, pp 53-79;
134. H S A Fox, 'Local farmers associations and the circulation of agricultural information in nineteenth-century England', in idem and R A Butlin, eds, Change in the Countryside: Essays on Rural England, 1500-1900, Inst Brit Geogrs Special Publ, X, 1979, pp 43-63;
135. J D Sykes, 'Agriculture and science', in G E Mingay, ed, The Victorian Countryside, 2 vols, 1981, vol I, pp 267-70;
136. K Hudson, Patriotism until Profit: British Agricultural Societies in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, 1972, pp 113-29;
137. N Goddard, 'Agricultural literature and societies', in Mingay, Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, pp 331-83.
138. R S Schofield, 'The impact of scarcity and plenty on population change in England, 1541-1871', in R I Rotberg and T K Rabb, eds, Hunger and History, 1985, pp 67-94;
139. Campbell and Overton, 'New perspective on medieval and early modern agriculture', pp 44-5, 95-99.
140. Most of Jones' arguments are supported by scattered instance from farm accounts and contemporary literature. A major assumption, that the terms of trade favoured livestock, is an exaggeration since terms of trade moved only slightly in favour of livestock and could have been more than offset by government inducements to maintain arable cultivation, together with the development of both markets and new ways of marketing grain: E L Jones, Agriculture and the Industrial Revolution, Oxford, 1974, p 72;
141. John, 'Agricultural productivity and economic growth', pp 19-25;
142. M W Flinn, 'Agricultural productivity and economic growth: a comment', Jnl Econ Hist, XXVI, 1966, pp 93-8;
143. Mark Overton, 'An agricultural revolution, 1650-1750', in idem, E J T Collins, M E Turner and D N McCloskey, Agricultural History: Papers Presented to the Economic History Society Conference, Canterbury, 1983, pp 6-7;
144. Patrick O'Brien, 'Agriculture and the home market for English industry, 1660-1820', Eng Hist Rev, C, 1985, pp 773-800;
145. but see also the comments of Glennie, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture, II', pp 157-8.
146. Overton, 'Diffusion of agricultural innovations'.
147. Clark, 'Agriculture and the industrial revolution', pp 242-9;
148. see also C Knick Harley, 'Reassessing the industrial revolution: a macro view' in Mokyr, The British Industrial Revolution, pp 191-7.
149. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, p 208.
150. The yield of barley is based on 35 different plots of ground: R C Allen, 'Inferring yields from probate inventories', Jnl Econ Hist, XLVIII, 1988, pp 117-25;
151. Mark Overton, 'Re-estimating crop yields from probate inventories', Jnl Econ Hist, L, 1988, pp 931-5.
152. Overton and Campbell, 'Productivity change in European agricultural development', pp 38-41;
153. Glennie, 'Continuity and change in Hertfordshire agriculture, II', pp 150-2;
154. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, pp 206-7;
155. Overton, 'Determinants of land productivity', p 290.
156. Jones, 'Agriculture and economic growth in England', p 8;
157. Kerridge, Agricultural Revolution, pp 19-20.
158. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, p 112.
159. R Parkinson, A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Rutland, 1808;
160. R Parkinson, idem, A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Huntingdon, 1811.
161. Shiel, 'Improving soil fertility'; Chorley, 'Agricultural revolution in Northern Europe';
162. Overton, 'Determinants of land productivity', p 314.
163. J A Yelling, Common Field and Enclosure in England 1450-1850, 1977, p 204.
164. General Report on Enclosures drawn up by order of the Board of Agriculture, 1808.
165. General Report on Enclosures drawn up by order of the Board of Agriculture, Ibid, p 254.
166. Allen, Enclosure and the Yeoman, pp 114, 117-8.
167. General Report on Enclosures, pp 270-1.
168. General Report on Enclosures, idem, pp 286-9;
169. Wade-Martins, Black Faces.
170. Devine, Transformation of Rural Scotland, pp 51-2.