英国农业革命
影响深远的生产改良
英国农业革命(英語:British Agricultural Revolution),即第二次农业革命(Second Agricultural Revolution),是17世纪中叶至19世纪末期劳动和土地生产率的提高引起的英国农业生产的空前增长。在1770年前的一个世纪中,农业产量的增长速度超过了人口增长速度,此后,生产力仍居世界前列。粮食供应的增加促进了英格兰和威尔士人口的迅速增长,从1700年的550万增加到1801年的900万,不过在19世纪,由于人口增长了两倍多,超过3200万,粮食国内生产逐渐被进口所取代。[1]生产率的提高加速了农业在劳动力中所占份额的下降,贡献了工業化所依赖的城市劳动力,因此,农业革命被认为是工业革命的原因之一。
但是,历史学家继续争论这次“革命”到底是什么时候发生的、由什么组成。G. E. Mingay认为这非单一的事件,他说:“农业革命接踵而至,一次是在1750年之前的两个世纪,另一次是在1650年之后的世纪,在1750-1880年期间第三次,在19世纪中期是第四次。”[2]这导致最近的历史学家认为,关于“农业革命”的任何一般性陈述都难以站得住脚。[3][4]
是次农业革命中,除了因為航海時代引入美洲作物的使得歐洲農業獲得強大的高生產力之外,耕作方法的一项重要变化是以芜菁和三叶草轮作代替休耕。芜菁可以在冬天种植,并且是深根的,使它们能够汲取浅根作物无法接触到的矿物质。三叶草将大气中的氮固定成为一种肥料。这允许在封闭的农场中对轻质土进行高强度的耕作,并提供饲料喂养增加的牲畜,而牲畜粪便又能进一步增加土壤肥力。
重大发展与创新
英国农业革命是社会、经济和农业技术变革的复杂相互作用的结果。主要的发展和创新包括:[5]
参见
参考文献
- ^ Richards, Denis; Hunt, J.W. An Illustrated History of Modern Britain: 1783–1980 3rd. Hong Kong: Longman Group UK LTD. 1983: 7. ISBN 978-0-582-33130-3.
- ^ G. E. Mingay (ed.) (1977), The Agricultural Revolution: Changes in Agriculture 1650–1880, p. 3
- ^ Peter Jones (2016), Agricultural Enlightenment: Knowledge, Technology, and Nature, 1750–1840, p. 7
- ^ See also Joel Mokry (2009), The Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution 1700–1850, p. 173
- ^ Overton 1996,第1頁
- ^ R. W. Sturgess, "The Agricultural Revolution on the English Clays." Agricultural History Review (1966): 104-121. in JSTOIR (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)
延伸阅读
- Ang, James B., Rajabrata Banerjee, and Jakob B. Madsen. "Innovation and productivity advances in British agriculture: 1620–1850". Southern Economic Journal 80.1 (2013): 162–186.
- Campbell, Bruce M. S., and Mark Overton. "A new perspective on medieval and early modern agriculture: six centuries of Norfolk farming c. 1250-c. 1850." Past and Present (1993): 38-105. JSTOR 651030.
- Clark, Gregory. "Too much revolution: Agriculture in the industrial revolution, 1700–1860". In The British Industrial Revolution: An Economic Perspective (2nd ed. 1999) pp. 206–240.
- Dodd, William. The Laboring Classes of England : especially those engaged in agriculture and manufactures; in a series of letters. Boston: John Putnam. 1847.
- Fletcher, T. W. "The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873–1896". Economic History Review (1961) 13#3 pp: 417–432. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.1961.tb02128.x.
- Harrison, L. F. C. The Common People, a History from the Norman Conquest to the Present. Glasgow: Fontana. 1989. ISBN 978-0-00-686163-8.
- Hoyle, Richard W., ed. The Farmer in England, 1650–1980. Ashgate. 2013.
- Kerridge, Eric. The Agricultural Revolution. Routledge. 2013.
- Mingay, Gordon E. "The 'Agricultural Revolution' in English History: A Reconsideration". Agricultural History (1963): 123–133. JSTOR 3740366.
- Mingay, Gordon E. (1977). The Agricultural Revolution: Changes in Agriculture, 1650–1880. (Documents in Economic History.) Adam & Charles Black. ISBN 0713617039.
- Niermeier-Dohoney, Justin. (2018). A Vital Matter: Alchemy, Cornucopianism, and Agricultural Improvement in Seventeenth-Century England, The University of Chicago.
- Overton, Mark. Agricultural Revolution in England: The transformation of the agrarian economy 1500-1850. Cambridge University Press. 1996. ISBN 978-0-521-56859-3.
- Overton, Mark. Agricultural Revolution in England 1500–1850. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. 2002. ISBN 978-0-521-56859-3.
- Snell, K. D. M. Annals of the Labouring Poor, Social Change and Agrarian England 1660–1900. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 1985. ISBN 978-0-521-24548-7.
- Taylor, George Rogers. The Transportation Revolution, 1815–1860. The Economic History of the United States: Vol. 4. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. 1969 [1951]. ISBN 9780873321013. OCLC 963968247.
- Temple, Robert. The Genius of China: 3000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention. Simon and Schuster. 1986.
- Thirsk, Joan (2004). "Blith, Walter (bap. 1605, d. 1654)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
史学著作
- Robert C. Allen. "Tracking the Agricultural Revolution in England". Economic History Review (1999) 52#2 pp. 209–235. doi:10.1111/1468-0289.00123.
- Overton, Mark. Re-establishing the English Agricultural Revolution. Agricultural History Review. 1996, 44 (1): 1–20. JSTOR 40275062.
外部链接
- "Agricultural Revolution in England 1500–1850" (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆)—BBC History