Revolutions in agriculture Flashcards
(19 cards)
What are Overton’s (1996) three criteria for an agricultural revolution?
1) Variety of farming changes, 2) Response to population growth, 3) Increased output via productivity.
What are the three phases of the Agricultural Revolution?
1) Yeoman’s Revolution (16C/17C), 2) Landlord’s Revolution (18C), 3) 19C Revolution (1800–1850).
Name three key technological advances during the Agricultural Revolution.
Water meadows, new fodder crops, arable rotations.
What institutional change was central to the Agricultural Revolution?
Enclosure – privatizing common lands.
What were the pro-enclosure arguments?
Increased productivity, better land use, urbanisation, and economic growth.
What were the anti-enclosure arguments (Neeson, 1993)?
Loss of peasant rights, increased inequality, and questionable productivity gains.
What is the “Tragedy of the Commons” argument (Hardin, 1968)?
Common land leads to overuse and depletion due to lack of individual accountability.
What are Overton’s (1996) three channels for productivity gains from enclosure?
Better irrigation, commercial agriculture, and reduced fallow land.
What does Allen (2009) argue about enclosure’s impact?
It increased productivity marginally; yeomen gains were greater.
What method does Overton (1996) use to estimate agricultural output?
Population method: assumes constant consumption per person.
What method does Allen (1999) use?
Demand-curve method: estimates full demand curve using elasticities.
What is proto-industrialisation?
Early industry in rural areas using family labor, hand techniques, and non-local markets.
What are the three theories linking proto-industry to the IR?
1) Demographic acceleration, 2) Transition to capitalism, 3) Dualistic labour supply.
What does the demographic acceleration model propose?
Proto-industry increased marriage and fertility, boosting population and labor supply.
What is a key critique of the fertility trend model?
Fertility trends were similar across regions, not unique to proto-industrial areas.
What does the transition to capitalism model argue?
Proto-industry created entrepreneurs and demand, leading to modern industry.
What is a major critique of the industrialisation model?
Many proto-industrial regions deindustrialised; other countries had proto-industry but didn’t industrialise.
What is the dualistic labour supply model based on?
Lewis’s surplus labour theory – traditional sector labor moved to modern industry without wage increases.
What is Williamson’s (1985) critique of this model?
It doesn’t apply to England; wage and timing evidence contradict it.
