The Land

The Land

spread of the industrial revolution:

note Germany was unified in 1871 so statistics before that are tricky

relative share of world manufacturing output

German immigration to the US was much larger than most of us in the East realize, with the largest number going to Wisconsin and Texas

Germany now hopes to take the lead in the fourth industrial revolution

How important is farming to the economy today?

in South Carolina: 1% of workers work in agriculture
food prices affect what else people buy
we need food and our industrial food system has made it cheap
is it a good idea to import food?

importing food can harm the local economy and causes pollution
import food if it can be produced more effectively elsewhere
in case of war if you are dependent on imported food you can be in trouble

in an industrial economy you still need food, but food production tends to shift to where it is most efficient/economical
but agriculture is also a way of life and a matter of national security
mindset of industry is efficiency and simplification, carries over to agriculture and to society

One calculation of agricultural productivity in England is below, but it is complicated because the wool industry and the demand for grain to feed horses and oxen would be declining and food was increasingly being imported:

Science and technology led to dramatic improvements in agriculture in the 19th century--for the second half of the industrial revolution the key story is about the impact of the industrial revolution on agriculture

this allowed fewer farmers to feed more people
it meant agriculture represented a smaller and smaller part of the total economy because other parts of the economy grew
industry changed the political importance of rural life as investment in industry rather than owning land increasingly became the basis of wealth

Note Hobsbawm's statistics on the structure of agriculture in Britain in 1851 (p. 173)

about 4000 landlords owned 57% of the cultivated land
they leased it to about 250,000 farmers
who employed about 1,250,000 farm laborers
out of a total population of 20 million (up from 8 million in 1801)
even in the 1870s only 10% of the land was farmed by farmers who owned their own land (p. 179)

Corn Laws 1815-1846--tariff that restricted imports of all grain--protected farmers somewhat, but the real protection was high shipping costs. Because factory owners gained political clout the corn laws were abolished in 1846.
In the 1870s and 1880s transportation was good enough to bring cheap food imports to Britain, which helped workers but hurt farmers

by 1870 steam power had replaced sails for trans-oceanic ships (the key was the invention of the screw propeller)
the price of grain dropped rapidly, as it became available from the great prairies of the US, Canada, and Russia
Britain did not impose tariffs to protect agriculture
instead farmers were able to switch to producing meat, milk, fruits, and vegetables, which were not yet imported (though refrigeration allowed meat to be imported starting in the 1880s)
the amount of land planted in grain in England dropped from 9.6 million acres in 1872 to 6.5 million acres in 1913 to 4.7 million acres in 1932 (Hobsbawm 177)
in the next step, England does less well. Britain did not innovate as much as other countries because the land was still owned by large landowners and that organization discouraged the cooperative organizations of farmers for processing and marketing their crops that made a big difference in other European countries
landowners began to sell land to tenants after WWI, but at the same time landowners lost their political clout
In Britain in World War II agriculture was expanded and modernized to feed the population during the blockade of shipping, and has been protected since

How did the Industrial Revolution change agriculture?

Scientific study of fertilizer and new methods of production--improved yield per acre to feed a growing population

wheat yields per acre: 50% increase between 1800 and 1850: better fertilizing
not always clear: one experiment in the 1700s said breaking the soil up finely was more important than fertilizer
several companies early 19th century: make fertilizer from bone meal
in the 1830s Justus von Liebig in Germany discovered the importance of nitrogen in fertilizer and soil and fertilizer analysis

he produced a synthetic fertilizer in England but it didn't work, it wasn't able to be absorbed well by plants
Law of the Minimum (the barrel analogy)--plant growth will be limited by whichever essential nutrient is in shortest supply (key elements are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium)

Rothamsted Experimental Station Hertfordshire, England, in 1841: long-term field trials of fertilizers

John Lawes started the research on the estate he had inherited after patenting one of the first synthetic fertilizers
found a way to make phosphorous in a form plants could use
hired a scientist named Joseph Henry Gilbert who researched synthesis and effects of fertilizers

superphosphate fertilizers were invented in England in the 1850s
England was a leader in synthetic fertilizer--imported guano had convinced farmers fertilizer was worth buying
direct manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer using nitrogen from the air was invented by Bosch and Haber in 1909

a self-binding reaper for harvesting grain in Scotland

Mechanization--how many farmers needed to grow a given amount of food

rapid development of horsedrawn metal machines for agriculture starting in the 1820s, particularly for cutting and threshing grain

the first patent for a reaping machine was issued in England in 1799, widely successful designs developed in the United States in the 1830s
horse-drawn technology worked well for medium sized farms

improved machine-building technology so such machines could be built at reasonable cost
new cultural emphasis on efficiency and innovation

in the 1850s and 1860s steam engines for plowing and cutting drainage, pioneered by John Fowler, but they were too heavy and expensive (video of an plow powered by a cable and a stationary engine)
gasoline powered tractors were introduced after WWI from the US, though there were some British innovations
not very widely used in Britain until World War II

Industrial revolution led to science and technology that made agriculture more efficient
industrial revolution reduced the cost of transporting food
food becomes cheaper
Industrial revolution reduced the political clout of farmers and landowners--factories become the larger part of the economy
also made farmers more capitalistic and more willing to innovate

Does it matter if a country becomes dependent on imported food?

dependence becomes a problem in case of war
social unrest if people can no longer make a decent living
In England and Europe, protecting nature is more about protecting the traditional rural farm countryside rather than protecting wilderness (there isn't any wilderness in England)

Question to ask about technological and economic change: Who benefits and who is hurt?
How is this an issue of sustainability?

this page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack
last updated 9/11/19