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2.1 Agrarian Economy in Pre-Industrial Europe - Coggle Diagram
2.1 Agrarian Economy in Pre-Industrial Europe
Rural Life
85% of Europeans lived outside cities
Most people worked the lands and seas
Rural life was diverse: different labour, land systems, sectors and activities
LIfe was also dynamic: seasonal shifts, short term crises, long term changes
Tasks often divided by gender. Women were involved in work outside the home
Yields quite low: only
5 bushels of grain from 1 bushel sown on good soil, 1/10 of the modern average yield
. This is a precarious society
Cattle would be allowed to graze freely in the uplands in the summer before the grass was covered by snow in the winter - transhumance of large herds
Importance of common land - crucial to subsistence farming as it supports smaller farmers
Little ice age
Up to scholarly interpretation. c.late 14th century to 18th century - not coherent, patchy
Fewer sun spots? More volcanic activity? Changes in El Nino? more forests due to reforestation w population decline?
Harder to grow crops, fewer warm months: 2 cycles of crops now down to 1. Difficulty in transhumance
Results in sporadic famines and rising price of food, exacerbated by the rising price of silver.
Spring was the bleak and hungry time, as winter larder had been depleted and the new plants hadn't grown
Contributed to social unrest
16th century was a period of intensified cultivation, but resulted in less yied. More work but less result (exceptions were Low Countries and England)
From 17th-18th centuries, activity remained strong in the low countries but production shot up in England
How did the European agrarian economy change in the following 200 years? (1550-1750)
Improvement and enclosure of land
Landowners believe they can "improve" their land - an increase in profits by changing landscapes at the behest of subsistence farmers
In the Netherlands, new plants like clover and legumes were grown to enrich the soil rather than leaving it to fallow
Turnips could be grown in the winter to keep fields clear of weeds
New crops like potatoes
Innovation was present in previous periods as well. But there were now longer sustained attempts to improve and innovate, an intensification of the long term trend
Draining marshlands and fens, especially in the Netherlands. Dutch engineers are hired elsewhere
Low intensity, foraging marshland turned into highly intense, single crop fields
Hillsides are reclaimed and woods are cleared
Landholding more concentrated, increasing campaigns of enclosure in England, first to make pasture for sheep
Enclosure
Vast majority of land was owned by landowners where it was worked by tenants. Multi-generational leases turned into short-term leases with increasing rents
Landlords amalgamate properties and increase farm sizes
Historians now realise the process of enclosure and amalgamation was longer-term than previously thought, beginning in the late Middle Ages
Redistribution of profits from agrarian activites from farmers and tenants to landlords
Pastoral industry was particularly dynamic as animals were less labour intensive to raise. Highly productive and feed into other industries with wool etc
England's farming 50% animal based. Arable farming dominant in the rest of Europe.
In Spain, landlords were largely content with what they had - large latifundia estates
In Russia, nobility profited off an entrenched serf system, with serfs tied to the land. Agriculture spread into the conquered steppe lands
Pushback against the content landlord narrative in Italy and Spain
In FRance, many small holding farmers dominated by taxation
Availability and coercion of labour
Proletarianisation:
people deprived of lands and commons, selling what they have. Eg selling family members as servants and labourers
Labour becomes more intense, more improvements means more work to do
A significant minority of labour was compulsory and forced. Hired labour was usually just subject to coercion of necessity
Widespread upper-middle class anxiety of vagrancy. Fear of lazy, able bodied people choosing to roam the land begging
Distortion of increase in poverty caused by proletarianisation
Slavery
Common in the Mediterranean, other forms of slavery reaching Europe from the Americas
Lisbon is 10-15% black in early modern period, of different slaved/unslaved status
Sailing technology allows Europeans to take resources from other continents/colonies
Consumption
Surplus production from improvements led to changes in tastes and consumption
Changes in production in order to satisfy their own demand
Luxuries become commonplace, "consumer revolution"
People in the countryside can afford to buy food and other goods. Highly commercialised agrarian economy, supported by transport and trade networks
By 1750 the European economy was a growing, commercial, advanced, organic economy. (no mechanisation) - essentially the edge of what could be achieved
More rural than urban
Embedded in global empires and trade network
Challenged by environmental degradation and global cooling
Increasingly unequal in its distribution