英國農業革命
影响深远的生产改良
英國農業革命(英語:British Agricultural Revolution),即第二次農業革命(Second Agricultural Revolution),是17世紀中葉至19世紀末期勞動和土地生產率的提高引起的英國農業生產的空前增長。在1770年前的一個世紀中,農業產量的增長速度超過了人口增長速度,此後,生產力仍居世界前列。糧食供應的增加促進了英格蘭和威爾士人口的迅速增長,從1700年的550萬增加到1801年的900萬,不過在19世紀,由於人口增長了兩倍多,超過3200萬,糧食國內生產逐漸被進口所取代。[1]生產率的提高加速了農業在勞動力中所占份額的下降,貢獻了工業化所依賴的城市勞動力,因此,農業革命被認為是工業革命的原因之一。
但是,歷史學家繼續爭論這次「革命」到底是什麼時候發生的、由什麼組成。G. E. Mingay認為這非單一的事件,他說:「農業革命接踵而至,一次是在1750年之前的兩個世紀,另一次是在1650年之後的世紀,在1750-1880年期間第三次,在19世紀中期是第四次。」[2]這導致最近的歷史學家認為,關於「農業革命」的任何一般性陳述都難以站得住腳。[3][4]
是次農業革命中,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,耕作方法的一項重要變化是以蕪菁和三葉草輪作代替休耕。蕪菁可以在冬天種植,並且是深根的,使它們能夠汲取淺根作物無法接觸到的礦物質。三葉草將大氣中的氮固定成為一種肥料。這允許在封閉的農場中對輕質土進行高強度的耕作,並提供飼料餵養增加的牲畜,而牲畜糞便又能進一步增加土壤肥力。
重大發展與創新
英國農業革命是社會、經濟和農業技術變革的複雜相互作用的結果。主要的發展和創新包括:[5]
參見
參考文獻
- ^ 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 (頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館)
延伸閱讀
- 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.
史學著作
- 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.
外部連結
- "Agricultural Revolution in England 1500–1850" (頁面存檔備份,存於網際網路檔案館)—BBC History