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Volumn 53, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 158-191

Family farms and capitalist farms in mid nineteenth-century England

(1)  Shaw Taylor, Leigh a  

a NONE

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EID: 27744462137     PISSN: 00021490     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review
Times cited : (22)

References (97)
  • 1
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    • The growth of an agrarian proletariat, 1688-1832: A statistical note
    • J. H. Clapham, 'The growth of an agrarian proletariat, 1688-1832: a statistical note', Cambridge Historical J., 1 (1923), pp. 92-5.
    • (1923) Cambridge Historical J. , vol.1 , pp. 92-95
    • Clapham, J.H.1
  • 2
    • 0024433436 scopus 로고
    • The development of rural society
    • G. E. Mingay (ed.)
    • The current state of knowledge is summarised in J. H. Porter, 'The development of rural society', in G. E. Mingay (ed.) The agrarian history of England and Wales, VI, 1750-1850 (1989), pp. 838-937. Robert Allen, in his chapter on agriculture during the industrial revolution in the recent Cambridge economic history of Britain, is reduced to stating that around 1800, farms averaged 100 acres in the north and 150 in the south. The southern figure is based entirely on data from the south Midlands while the northern figure derives from Ross Wordie's work on estates in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. As will be seen later, in Figure 2, these areas cannot be taken as representative of either the south or of the north as a whole.
    • (1989) The Agrarian History of England and Wales, VI, 1750-1850 , pp. 838-937
    • Porter, J.H.1
  • 3
    • 84928047618 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Agriculture during the industrial revolution, 1700-1850
    • R. Floud and P. Johnson (eds), 3 vols
    • R. C. Allen, 'Agriculture during the industrial revolution, 1700-1850', in R. Floud and P. Johnson (eds), The Cambridge economic history of modern Britain (3 vols, 2004), I, p. 100.
    • (2004) The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain , vol.1 , pp. 100
    • Allen, R.C.1
  • 4
    • 84982517990 scopus 로고
    • Social change on the Leveson-Gower estates
    • J. R. Wordie, 'Social change on the Leveson-Gower estates', EcHR 27 (1974), pp. 593-609.
    • (1974) EcHR , vol.27 , pp. 593-609
    • Wordie, J.R.1
  • 7
    • 84888033417 scopus 로고
    • Primitive accumulation and early industrialization in Britain
    • Some of the points made there mirror arguments made here. For a dissenting view of Clapham's analysis, J. Saville, 'Primitive accumulation and early industrialization in Britain', Socialist Register (1969), pp. 247-71.
    • (1969) Socialist Register , pp. 247-271
    • Saville, J.1
  • 8
    • 0030431901 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Industrialization and the small farm. Family and household economy in nineteenth-century Lancashire
    • On the market-orientation of small farms in the nineteenth century, see Michael Winstanley, 'Industrialization and the small farm. Family and household economy in nineteenth-century Lancashire', Past and Present 152 (1996), pp. 157-97
    • (1996) Past and Present , vol.152 , pp. 157-197
    • Winstanley, M.1
  • 9
    • 2942624497 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • The "survival" of service in the English labour force: Lessons from Lancashire, c. 1651-1851
    • and A. J. Gritt, 'The "survival" of service in the English labour force: lessons from Lancashire, c. 1651-1851', AgHR 50 (2002), pp. 25-50.
    • (2002) AgHR , vol.50 , pp. 25-50
    • Gritt, A.J.1
  • 10
    • 0040126713 scopus 로고
    • The peasantry of nineteenth-century England: A neglected class?
    • For an alternative view see Mick Reed, 'The peasantry of nineteenth-century England: a neglected class?', History Workshop J. 18 (1984), pp. 53-76.
    • (1984) History Workshop J. , vol.18 , pp. 53-76
    • Reed, M.1
  • 12
    • 0029473316 scopus 로고
    • Occupational censuses and the agricultural workforce in Victorian England and Wales
    • See Edward Higgs, 'Occupational censuses and the agricultural workforce in Victorian England and Wales', EcHR 48 (1995), pp. 700-16.
    • (1995) EcHR , vol.48 , pp. 700-716
    • Higgs, E.1
  • 13
    • 27744437177 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • All those described as farmers or graziers, whether male or female, have been counted as farmers. Male farm workers includes all those described as agricultural labourers, agricultural servants and shepherds.
  • 14
    • 27744475957 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The 1831 material may be problematic. The categories used are internally inconsistent, refer to families not individuals and to occupiers of land rather than farmers. Space precludes further examination of these issues.
  • 17
    • 27744549996 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • There were of course regional variations in farm size distributions within counties. This has been explored for Lancashire in Winstanley, 'Industrialization and the small farm'
    • Industrialization and the Small Farm
    • Winstanley1
  • 19
    • 27744535724 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII (i)
    • There is a further table covering the 'Islands in the British Sea' (Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man). BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII (i), Census of Great Britain, 1851, Population Tables, II, vols 1 & 2, 'Farmers, with the numbers of labourers employed and of acres occupied, divisions, I-X'.
    • Census of Great Britain, 1851, Population Tables, II , vol.1-2
  • 20
    • 27744566877 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Trouble with farms at the Census Office. An evaluation of farm statistics from the censuses of 1851-81 in England and Wales
    • D. R. Mills, 'Trouble with farms at the Census Office. An evaluation of farm statistics from the censuses of 1851-81 in England and Wales', AgHR 47 (1999), pp. 57-77. The account offered here differs from Mills on a number of points. Where this is so, attention is drawn to it in the text or the footnotes.
    • (1999) AgHR , vol.47 , pp. 57-77
    • Mills, D.R.1
  • 21
    • 27744526964 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • I am very grateful to Rebecca Tyler for inputting the farm size and employment data from the published census report for every English county.
  • 22
    • 27744583728 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, p. lxxvii
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, p. lxxvii.
  • 23
    • 0023495003 scopus 로고
    • Farm size in England and Wales, from early Victorian times to the present
    • D. Grigg, 'Farm size in England and Wales, from early Victorian times to the present', AgHR 35 (1987), p. 181.
    • (1987) AgHR , vol.35 , pp. 181
    • Grigg, D.1
  • 24
    • 27744460487 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • In 1861 and 1871 only data for 17 'representative counties' were published. Contra Grigg, the data were also collected in 1881 but none of it was published.
  • 25
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Mills suspects that omissions may have been most prominent amongst both the smallest and largest farmers. However, this supposition appears to rest only on a priori reasoning. Mills, 'Farm statistics', p. 67.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 67
    • Mills1
  • 27
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • This view receives qualified support from Mills, 'Farm statistics', pp. 59, 71.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 59
    • Mills1
  • 28
    • 27744487768 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, Census of Great Britain 1851, Instructions to enumerators, p. 6. In fact the instructions were somewhat more forbidding than the letter of the law. The pertinent act of parliament specified a fine of between £2 and £5, p. 39.
    • Census of Great Britain 1851, Instructions to Enumerators , pp. 6
  • 30
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • In fact the 'representative counties' somewhat under-represented the counties with smaller farms in 1851. Compare columns three and five in Table 4, Mills, 'Farm statistics', p. 70.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 70
    • Mills1
  • 33
    • 27744505037 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, p. 6
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, p. 6.
  • 34
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • In fact all employers were requested to report the number of men they employed. The account given here both of the questions asked and as to whom they were directed differs from that given by Mills which suggests that householders who were occupiers of land were asked to supply this information and that they were asked to return the numbers of women and children. Mills, 'Farm statistics', p. 59. Mills' account conflates firstly, the instructions to enumerators with the instructions to householders and secondly, actual practice with the instructions of the Census Office.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 59
    • Mills1
  • 36
    • 27744487767 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, p. 6
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, p. 6.
  • 38
    • 27744533801 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • According to the census report, there were 1839 male farmers and 157 female farmers in the county.
  • 39
    • 27744473211 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, Farmers
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, Farmers. This footnote, or one almost identical, appears in the first pertinent table in each division.
  • 40
    • 27744527724 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • There would be approximately 16 million nominal records for England as a whole.
  • 41
    • 27744601154 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • I am deeply grateful to the Buckinghamshire Family History Society for making the full database available to me and to Dr David Thorpe for making this possible.
  • 42
    • 27744597547 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The rates of compliance were 91 per cent for male farmers and 88 per cent for female farmers.
  • 43
    • 27744553171 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • Though this is not of course small. This suggests that the reporting of 'farms' by those with a distinct primary occupation was restricted to those whose agricultural holdings were sufficiently large that they had no doubt that they should be considered farmers.
  • 44
    • 27744567948 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • An attempt to take this exercise further by reconstructing the published table from the CEBs revealed a large number of minor errors by the census clerks. Many farms were clearly placed one cell out in the table. Such errors would have been hard to avoid in the pre-computer era. Fortunately the summary statistics derived from the reconstructed table were virtually identical to those in the published table suggesting the clerks' errors were entirely random. However, these errors made it impossible to use a comparison of the published and CEB derived tables to assess who the clerks had omitted from the published tables.
  • 47
    • 0345055270 scopus 로고
    • East Yorkshire's agricultural labour force in the mid-nineteenth century
    • J. A. Sheppard, 'East Yorkshire's agricultural labour force in the mid-nineteenth century', AgHR 9 (1961), p. 44.
    • (1961) AgHR , vol.9 , pp. 44
    • Sheppard, J.A.1
  • 49
    • 7544247846 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Farm service in Southern England in the mid-nineteenth century
    • It has recently been shown that the 1851 census mis-categorised many farm servants as day labourers. N. Goose, 'Farm service in Southern England in the mid-nineteenth century', Local Population Stud. 72 (2004), pp. 77-82. This is an important issue but not one that affects the issues under discussion in the present paper.
    • (2004) Local Population Stud. , vol.72 , pp. 77-82
    • Goose, N.1
  • 51
    • 84923514220 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, Instructions, pp. 6, 38.
    • Instructions , pp. 6
  • 52
    • 27744457090 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, Farmers
    • BPP, 1852-3, LXXXVIII, Farmers.
  • 53
    • 27744489367 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The Census instructions to enumerators gave no indication as to the age which divided boys from labourers. It is possible that the distinction seemed obvious to contemporaries.
  • 54
    • 27744598943 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • It should be remembered that the Census Office was in a position to enquire of enumerators how the returns had been compiled and we are not.
  • 55
    • 27744586269 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • Some 'farmers', of course, must have been retired or temporarily out of place.
  • 56
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • The secondary literature is reviewed in Mills, 'Farm statistics', pp. 63-4.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 63-64
    • Mills1
  • 57
    • 27744526962 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1852-53, LXXXVIII
    • BPP, 1852-53, LXXXVIII, Report, p. lxxviii.
    • Report
  • 59
    • 0003041799 scopus 로고
    • The dimensions of illiteracy, 1750-1850
    • R. S. Schofield, 'The dimensions of illiteracy, 1750-1850', Explorations in Economic History X (1973), pp. 437-54.
    • (1973) Explorations in Economic History , vol.10 , pp. 437-454
    • Schofield, R.S.1
  • 60
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Mills, 'Farm statistics', pp. 61-2. However, the individual concerned was 19 years of age and may have been considered a boy rather than a man.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 61-62
    • Mills1
  • 61
    • 27744452128 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The figure falls to twenty households if one excludes servants under twenty, who may have been considered boys rather than men.
  • 63
    • 27744575803 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The issue is complex and cannot be explored further here. However I hope elsewhere to explore the potential of this evidence for assessing seasonal unemployment, its regional variation and its relationship to poor relief expenditure.
  • 64
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • However, it is not correct to state that these individuals were simply omitted from the farm size tables as Mills does, Mills, 'Farm statistics', p. 67.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 67
    • Mills1
  • 65
    • 84906605277 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII
    • BPP, 1851, XLIII, Instructions, pp. 36, 38.
    • Instructions , pp. 36
  • 66
    • 27744470293 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • It may be possible to locate enumeration districts elsewhere in the country where female employment was well recorded. If so these could shed much light on the agricultural employment of women at this time of year.
  • 69
    • 27744505036 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • It is a great pity that women and boys were lumped together in this way. And what, one wonders, happened to girls? Whether or not the data collected in 1871 and alluded to in the published footnotes were of similar quality to that published for adult men remains a moot point. Investigation of CEBs from 1871 could be very instructive on female and child employment patterns.
  • 70
    • 27744550330 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • As suggested earlier, not much more than 60 per cent of the male farm workforce can be accounted for in the farm size and employment tables.
  • 71
    • 27744535722 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • Those readers who would have preferred lower estimates of average acreage could adopt the simple expedient of reducing all the acreage figures by five per cent. Any such changes would affect Figure 2 but would make no difference to Figures 3 to 8.
  • 72
    • 27744523836 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • Although this is discussed in a second article, alluded to earlier, on the decline of family farms and the development of agrarian capitalism over the period 1600 to 1851.
  • 74
    • 27744536678 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Agriculture
    • Langton and Morris
    • Mark Overton's mapping of the 1831 census material indicate that Northumberland was part of a larger area of capitalist farms stretching north across the border into Scotland: Overton, 'Agriculture', in Langton and Morris, Atlas, p. 45. Whether these farms were also characterised by similarly high acreages remains to be seen. This map and all those that follow could easily, and usefully, be extended to Wales and Scotland. I hope to do this in the future. However, the project of which the work underlying this paper forms a larger part is restricted to England.
    • Atlas , pp. 45
    • Overton1
  • 75
    • 27744540498 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • These counties do not quite form a contiguous area since Warwickshire has been consigned to the southeast.
  • 78
    • 27744550329 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • note
    • The census farm size and employment table data imply that perhaps one-third of the agricultural workforce was unemployed on census day. If so, employment may have been 50 per cent higher in peak periods. This unemployment figure may of course be inflated by some under-reporting of employment. If that is so then the data presented in this paper understate the level of farm employment on census day and exaggerate the extent of unemployment.
  • 81
    • 27744529467 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • See for instance, Mills, 'Farm statistics', p. 71, who makes this point but does not seem to take it fully on board.
    • Farm Statistics , pp. 71
    • Mills1
  • 82
    • 27744496723 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Both Grigg and Reed were fully aware of the distinction, Grigg, 'Farm size', p. 182;
    • Farm Size , pp. 182
    • Grigg1
  • 84
    • 27744527723 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • Reed, 'Peasantry' Ibid., pp. 57-8.
    • Peasantry , pp. 57-58
    • Reed1
  • 92
    • 27744523835 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • The changing rural landscape
    • Mingay (ed.)
    • Caird's map is conveniently reproduced in H. C. Prince, 'The changing rural landscape', in Mingay (ed.) Agrarian history VI, p. 75.
    • Agrarian History , vol.6 , pp. 75
    • Prince, H.C.1
  • 93
    • 27744449949 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • North-South dichotomies, 1066-1550
    • A. R. H. Baker and M. Billinge (eds)
    • See the maps of rich and poor areas in 1086, 1334 and 1524-6 in B. M. S. Campbell, 'North-South dichotomies, 1066-1550', in A. R. H. Baker and M. Billinge (eds), Geographies of England. The North-South divide, material and imagined (2004), pp. 152, 163.
    • (2004) Geographies of England. The North-South Divide, Material and Imagined , pp. 152
    • Campbell, B.M.S.1
  • 95
    • 27744442869 scopus 로고    scopus 로고
    • See Campbell, 'North-South dichotomies' for an incisive analysis of the regional differences and their causes between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries.
    • North-South Dichotomies
    • Campbell1


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