The Industrial Revolution (1):
The Agricultural Revolution
Study guide questions:
- Why did the Industrial Revolution start in England?
- What was the “Agricultural Revolution”?
- What were the “Enclosure Acts”? What major problem did they solve?
- List and analyze all the negative consequences of the Agricultural Revolution (use bullet points)
- List and analyze all the positive contributions of the Agricultural Revolution (use bullet points)
If we want to summarize what the Industrial Revolution was, we can say that it was a period during which man was able to domesticate nature for his own benefit thanks to key technological advances. It is not a coincidence that this Revolution began as an agricultural revolution in Britain in the 18th century, and turned into an industrial revolution spreading to continental Europe and the United States during the following century.
The Industrial Revolution is called a revolution because it transformed society and the western world very quickly. Over the course of human history, there has been only one other group of changes as significant as the Industrial Revolution. This is what anthropologists call the Neolithic Revolution, which took place in the later part of the Stone Age. In the Neolithic Revolution, people moved from social systems based on hunting and gathering to much more complex communities that depended on agriculture and the domestication of animals. This led to the rise of permanent settlements and, eventually, urban civilizations. The Industrial Revolution brought a shift from the agricultural societies created during the Neolithic Revolution to modern industrial societies. For many historians and economists, it overshadows the French Revolution in its importance for the future of Western civilization.
Why England?
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain because social, political, and legal conditions there were particularly favorable to change. First, the Agricultural Revolution led to a huge increase in population that would supply the British economy with a large labor force and a huge domestic market for clothing and food. Second, thanks to the presence of a large middle class, a strong central bank and the profits it made from its overseas markets, the country had enough capital available for investments. Furthermore, the colonies that Britain possessed all over the world at that time represented huge markets for British companies. Property rights, such as those for patents on mechanical improvements, were also well established. More importantly, the predictable, stable rule of law in Britain meant that monarchs and aristocrats were less likely to arbitrarily seize earnings or impose taxes than they were in many other countries. As a result, earnings were safer, and ambitious businesspeople could gain wealth, social prestige, and power more easily than could people on the European continent. These factors encouraged risk taking and investment in new business ventures, both crucial to economic growth.
In addition, Great Britain’s government pursued a relatively hands-off economic policy. This free-market approach was made popular through Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith and his book The Wealth of Nations (1776). The hands-off policy permitted fresh methods and ideas to flourish with little interference or regulation.
Another asset of England is that it possessed good natural resources such as coal to fuel the new machines, iron to build machines, tools and buildings, rivers and natural harbors to bring in raw materials or to ship out the finished goods to the markets overseas.
The Agricultural Revolution
Starting in the 18th century, a series of reforms in the agricultural practices of England began to pave the way for the Industrial Revolution. These reforms were needed so that England could become the world's first industrial nation. England's agricultural reforms had two major effects: 1) they increased the food production of English farms, allowing them to feed the increasing populations of England's industrializing cities; 2) they reduced the number of people who were needed to live in the countryside and farm, thereby creating a pool of available labor for the new factories being built in the cities.
There were two major inventions which contributed to the reformation of agriculture in England. They were: Charles Townshend'sfour field crop rotation system. This new system of farming used complimentary crops (turnips, clover) to naturally rejuvenate the soil. This meant that farmers no longer had to leave some of their fields fallow (empty) each year in order to rejuvenate. Jethro Tull's seed planting drill was the first of many machines that would aid in agriculture. The seed drill planted seeds at uniform intervals and depths. This was much better than the old system of "broadcasting" which basically involved throwing handfuls of seed around.
In order for farmers to use these and other agricultural innovations, they needed to have large, consolidated plots of land. This was a problem since over the centuries the land in England had been divided up into small strips under the "open field system." Farmland was divided into three fields. One field was planted in the spring; one was planted in the fall; and the third was allowed to lie fallow (no crop). No fences were used to divide these fields - none were needed. Livestock was kept in a common pasture. Every farmer would own several narrow strips of land scattered around the countryside. The resulting system was very inefficient. Farmers spent much time traveling from one field to another. Additionally, the fields were too narrow to allow for the use of machines or larger farm implements. Old methods of planting and harvesting meant that productivity was low. Most farmers barely produced enough to feed themselves and there was rarely any surplus production.
To rectify this situation, the British Parliament enacted a series of laws (mostlybetween 1760 and 1830) called the Enclosure Acts. The Enclosure Acts had three major components: 1) During auctions, they sold the "common land" which had traditionally been shared by the community, mostly to wealthy landowning bourgeois. 2) They required all farmers to build an expensive gate around their lands. 3) They asked all peasants to prove that they were the rightful owners of the land with a deed, a deed that small peasants often did not possess as their land had been passed on for generations.
The Enclosure Acts forced small farmers off their lands for a variety of reasons: The small farmers relied on the common land for fire wood and as a place to feed and water their animals. When the land was sold, poor farmers could not afford it. Poor farmers also could not afford the materials to build the fences and gates required by the enclosure acts.
There were a lot more poor farmers than rich ones, so why did the acts get passed? The law stated that Enclosure Acts could be passed if three quarters of the land owners wanted them. This meant that two or three wealthy land owners could force the laws to be passed in their community even if nobody else wanted enclosure. Thus, while the average person did not like enclosure, it did benefit the country by increasing the production of food and the number of laborers for industries.
The Abuse of Nature
It was the Agricultural Revolution that gave birth to environmental pollution as we know it today. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, forests were denuded to get the wood necessary to heat water for steam engines. Forests were also destroyed to create bigger farming units (as part of the Enclosure movement) or new towns. This process of deforestation led to the destruction of animal and plant habitats, and changed landscapes radically, often for the worse.
Concurrent with the industrial revolution, there developed an intellectual and artistic hostility towards the new industrialization known as the Romantic Movement. This movement was a reaction to the immense pollution and dehumanization created by what Blake called the “Dark Satanic Mills” (in reference to factories). My colleagues in the other classes will introduce you to some of the great leaders of this movement. Chiefs among them are the painter John Constable, the poets William Blake and William Wordsworth, and the writer Mary Shelley. All these authors and artists stressed the importance of "nature" in art and language, in contrast to the 'monstrous' machines and factories of these times. The problems the industrialized world faced with pollution led some others to claim the world was on the verge of a catastrophe unless immediate and radical action, such as deindustrialization, through a forced decline in economic growth, was taken.
Positive effects of the Agricultural Revolution:
Greater efficiency and technology allowed much more food to be grown, which resulted in cheaper food for everyone, and greater access to a more nutritious and varied diet. These improvements literally ended starvation in Western Europe and increased population levels. Greater population meant a higher demand for manufactured goods such as clothing and food. As fewer people were needed to grow food, many peasants migrated to the cities, which allowed factory owners to find the workers they needed, and for industrialization to begin.
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