By Middle of Eighteenth Century Nearly Eight out of Every Ten Europeans Were Farmers

Chapter 21

Old Systems

by middle of eighteenth century nearly eight out of every ten Europeans were farmers
“Although domestic industry increased the supply of manufactured commodities, it demanded even more labor from an already overworked sector of the traditional economy.”
prosperity was determined by nature, weather

Old Agriculture Ways

in the eighteenth century, the agricultural revolution transformed the economy and was one of the great turning points in human history
end of seventeenth century nearly 70 percent of population did agriculture, now less than 2 percent
during 1700s, agriculture used crop rotation methods that had been used for over a thousand years; fields were split into strips, each family owned a number of strips and cultivated them to live; one-half to one-third of village land remained fallow to restore nutrients in what’s called open-field farming; decisions about which crops to grow, where to put animals, how much wood would be cut affected everyone in the village; families relied on one another in a village and were not self sufficient
reasons why agricultural production techniques didn’t change for a long time:
peasants didn’t have much reason to change it, had little desire to make a surplus because almost ever commodity was perishable;
peasants owed much of their money to lords, many because of serfdom, some because of taxes, lost much of their harvest whether they were free or unfree
however, peasants were definitely interested in improving their condition and didn’t hinder improvement in any way; experimenting with new techniques was experimenting with their survival, therefore only adopted new techniques only if they were sure to work
peasants in France increased agricultural production by nearly 60 percent from 1720-1770, which was caused not by new techniques but by the intensification of traditional methods; number of strips held by each family decreased, but strips were more carefully cultivated
population of Europe increased by 50 percent between 1700 and 1800, causing problems with agriculture because: more people meant more families, meaning the land has to be more and more divided, meaning less land for people, meaning they have less land to produce food; too many people, not enough land, even good harvests weren’t enough; land was divided into units called “morsels” in France

Old Manufacture Ways

overpopulation (see above) also means increased need for more clothes, which means increased need for spinners and weavers, which means selling as much finished product as was made; families resorted to spinning and weaving when harvests were slow, known as the cottage industry, was less important or valuable than agriculture
need to create more and more clothes and the existence of lots of workers and empty hands led to the putting-out system- had different forms, some involved entrepreneurs, lords, or even the state; an entrepreneur would have enough money to start by buying raw materials, would then give them to homes to have them manufactured, were given back to entrepreneur who sold them, workers would be given part of the profit; was easy to get enough money to being the cycle (in fact, many of these entrepreneurs began as workers), required low amount of skill and no expensive tools, demanded little investment, allowed both women men and children to work,
laborers in putting out system accepted small wages, but everyone benefited because farmers with small plots of land or with a terrible harvest could supplement it with money from manufacturing; everyone benefited
number of laborers doing the putting-out system increased, although could not survive without money from agriculture; sons of farmers used to have to wait to inherit land before making own families, could now just enter weaving business and start families early, kids could help with business as well; increased population as well
problems with putting-out: both sides could lose- entrepreneurs could not overlook production, most disputes arose over quality of clothes that couldn’t be sold for full-price and expensive raw materials would be wasted, workers would therefore not be paid for that work

New Systems

New Agricultural Ways

okay here’s the deal: increased population, that means you need more food, that means you need better farming techniques. most places did this by simply doing traditional methods better and with new land areas and with more people; some places (Holland first, then England) underwent an agricultural revolution
now let me tell you a bit about this agricultural revolution: it involved new techniques and NOT new technology, humans were NOT replaced by machines or new forms of energy, the methods used were NOT new methods and in fact were known for centuries but only used in dire situations, the agricultural revolution used these same old methods in a more systematic way and applied to economy
new method numero uno, enclosure: (by the way, landowners had little incentive to invest in improvements and even the smallest land owner had rights, rights in commons meant a place in the community, what significance this information has I have no idea) enclosure was most advanced in England and appeared there in the 1500s believe it or not, the lord would carve up the land and make necessary changes to make everyone happy, three-quarters of the farm land in England was enclosed by 1760; also, those who owned a middle-sized amount of land had more to lose than those who had a small-sized amount, who were usually bought out; those people eventually disappeared from the enclosed villages and the parliament had to do parliamentary enclosure- in which the government (mostly large landowners) would take a look at the community and divide the land according to a formula
new method numero dos, fodder crops: crops such as clover and turnips that restored nutrients to the soil as they grew, even better than letting soil lie fallow; an even better system was putting farm animals to graze on this soil, they would eat the fodder crops therefore supplying them with food, and they would leave manure on the soil and fertilize it that way; cultivation of turnips began in Holland and moved to England in 1500s but wasn’t popular until 1700s when Viscount Charles “Turnip” Townsend made it so
new method numero tres, four-crop rotation: comes from idea of fodder crops and replaced three-crop rotation; invented by “Turnip” Townsend; involved the rotation of the following crops in this order: wheat, turnips, barley, clover; animals roamed while clover and turnips grew
note: livestock was very important; a horse could perform seven times the labor of a man while only needing five times the food and fertilizing land at the same time; when there wasn’t enough food to feed the humans and animals, some animals were eaten
new method numero cuatro, meadow floating: was a remarkable breakthrough; used to feed animals in hard times rather than eat them; low-lying land near streams would be allowed to flood and therefore be kept from freezing, the moisture after winter would allow grass to grow, on which animals could graze and stay alive
note: farmers could watch the economy and choose between growing grain or pasturing animals on their land; if wool or meat prices grew, then pasturing animals; if grain prices grew, then grow grain; also helped the economy have enough of what it needed; this is called convertible husbandry
also note: soils weren’t exactly the same, some were better for other jobs, that is, until fodder crops came; south eastern England sucked at growing grain, so it was used for growing grass for sheep, while central England did the grain growing, but once fodder crops showed up, south eastern England became the breadbasket of the country
note again: also, since more land could be used for growing whatever was needed, people could now experiment with animals, such as with herd management, crossbreeding, and fattening, all of which increased production of stuff
a few statistics: in England 1700- each farmer produced enough food for 1.7 people; in England 1800- each farmer produced enough food for 2.5 people

New Industrial Ways

statistic: in 1812 a woman could spin as much thread as 200 woman had in 1770
general idea: Industrial Revolution was a sustained period of economic growth and change brought about by the application of mineral energy and technological innovations to the process of manufacturing (in other words: The Industrial Revolution was a time when things got better and changes happened because stuff from the ground was used to do stuff and new machines and inventions were made to make the process of making stuff better); took place between 1750 and 1850, although different industries at different paces; did not all happen at once
why Britain?: Industrial Revolution occurred first in Britain, although was a regional rather than national phenomenon, every place benefited from the new inventions although some places were untouched by any new methods or inventions; so many nations had great natural resources, technological innovation, capital for investment, or fine products, but Britain… well Britain had them all
Britain’s Natural Blessings: 1) water- surrounded and protected Britain from invasion; internal water system tied the nation together, in 1700s no place in Britain was more than 70 miles from the sea or more than 30 miles from a navigable river; transportation by water was far cheaper than by land, horse could carry 250 pounds on its back on land, 100,000 pounds by walking alongside a river with a barge; 1760-1810 hundreds of miles of canals were built by authority of Navigation Acts; ex. Duke of Bridgewater completed the first great canal that put an uneconomical coal field into business by transporting coal, was very profitable and halved the price of coal in certain places; 2) coal- Britain had nearly depleted its supply of wood, which was used to make charcoal, which was used to smelt iron, which was used for machinery; when people found they could use coal instead of charcoal, it was readily available for them, almost at the surface of the land, near water-ways for transportation, and near supplies of iron
Britain’s Strong Infrastructure: shipping increased as Britain needed iron from Sweden, cotton from America, etc to fuel its industries; industrial nation would need a way to spread wealth, ex. use agriculture profits from south east for industry in the north west, Britain accomplished this with it’s Bank of England;

People and their Inventions

note: coal was the key to the Industrial Revolution, it was the black gold of the 1700s; investments on coal returned lots of profits
statistic: coal produced by ONE miner generated as much energy as TWENTY horses
old mining techniques: people had to carry coal and sand farther up as they dug deeper and deeper down; mining was extremely dangerous because of cave-ins, poor ventilation, and poor lighting; people could get better ventilation by sinking a second or third shaft down to allow for cross breezes, but took much more work; could improve lighting by bringing candles or sparks, but most pits contained combustible gases; water caused the biggest problems, pools of groundwater would form the deeper mines got, needed to be removed
Thomas Newcomen and the steam-driven pump: enabled water to be sucked through a pipe directly from the pit bottom to the surface; was expensive and needed tons of coal, but could raise same amount of water in a day as 2500 humans (huge advantage); came just when coal was needed
creating iron: largest demand from coal was for production of iron; iron was mined, then smelted into pig iron (log-grade, brittle metal), then converted to higher-quality bar iron by burning off some of its impurities using charcoal (or later coal), then made into rods and sheets to serve its need; each process of making iron needed separate machines and locations, therefore costing a lot for transportation

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