Agrarian Fundamentalism and English Agricultural Development.

Abstract

The paper argues that Agrarian Fundamentalism--both of Tory and Marxist origin--provides an erroneous analysis of the development of British agriculture between 1500 and 1800. Referring to his earlier work, the author argues that: (a) enclosures make little contribution to productivity growth; (b) there was no correlation between farm size and yield; (c) enclosures and farm amalgamations reduced employment per acre, but the labour released was not successfully reemployed in manufacturing; (d) real agricultural prices rose in England between the late middle ages and the nineteenth century, thus increasing inequaltiy by reducing the real incomes of the poor relative to the rich.