wrigley3

Wrigley 3

in organic economies negative feedback stops growth--running out of land to feed a growing population
in the industrial revolution there was instead positive feedback--for example urbanization encouraged agricultural productivity

Cities and towns were growing faster in England than in the rest of Europe

Does increasing food production cause urban grown or does the causation go the other way?

what happens when farmers have a particularly good harvest?

nobody starves so population can continue to increase

increase in food production is a necessary condition for growing cities
one possibility is that farmers produce more food, so the price of food goes down, so more people do what?

therefore crafts people can invest in more equipment for their business
people have money to buy more consumer goods

first cities began to grow, therefore farmers had more demand for their products, farmers try to grow more--investing in animals or improvements, get more land into production, work longer hours
At first this growth was mostly in London, but 1700-1800 it was mostly in other towns and cities which spread the market more broadly
more large towns means more farmers who can sell to an urban market

Key to this is improved transportation:

improved roads (turnpikes) built in large numbers 1750-1815 (about 1000 miles), reduced transportation costs 20-30%
these roads were smoothed on a regular basis, maybe with gravel
farmers were growing oats to feed horses to pull more carts

Canals

The Duke of Bridgewater's Canal started in 1759--7 miles but had to cross a river valley. People thought this was a wild dream, but built (link has map) in 5 years. Very profitable--halved the cost of coal in Manchester
canal building boom 1750-1800--by 1830 England had 3875 miles of navigable water (though only 1/3 of that was canals). The Oxford canal paid a 30% return for 30 years.
provided much cheaper transportation of bulky goods

Barton Aqueduct of the Bridgewater canal

The Consumer Revolution--what changes is a new interest in buying more products

What causes people to want to buy more than the necessities? Fashion, advertising, attitude of valuing owning things
Why did average people in 18th century England have enough money to purchase consumer goods?--farmers might work longer or improve agriculture, similarly for craftspeople, not so true of wage workers because wages were low
in cities people had more exposure to what products were available and changing fashion--some historians focus on increased demand
others focus on cheaper products causing consumers to buy more
people worked longer hours in order to be able to buy more (evidence on p. 71)

Increased agricultural productivity

how did England grow more food with the same rural population?
substituting animal labor for human labor because they could keep more animals over the winter
farm sizes were increasing
yield per acre doubled from 1600 to 1800
the amount of cereal food per person increased 40% for an increase of calories of perhaps 12%
much of the increase went to feed animals
positive feedback: more production leads to more animals leads to more manure to fertilize the fields
increase in the use of animal power because of increases in the production of oats
what drove the industrial revolution was not just energy from coal, but also energy from animal power
availability of animal power made it possible to improve agriculture by such practices as applying lime or marl (a mix of clay and limestone) to the fields
after 1800 basic foods were increasing imported from the colonies