New agricultural techniques and practices are one explanation for the increase in agricultural productivity and crop yields in Great Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. A second was the phenomenal increase in worker productivity during the same era. The agricultural worker in Great Britain produced more food, allowing the proportion of workers devoted to agriculture to fall. By the 18th century, Great Britain had experienced an increased output per person engaged in agriculture. This feature of British growth is striking because the population more than doubled in that period, but the number of persons engaged in farming increased only moderately from 2.78 million in 1700 to 3.84 million in 1850. The actual proportion of the workforce engaged in agriculture actually had declined for several centuries, but the country nonetheless had achieved self-sufficiency in food production. This fact is even more remarkable when one considers that Britain’s output per agricultural worker was double that of the rest of Europe in the period. By 1800, four in ten adult males in Great Britain made their livelihood by farming while the corresponding ratio on the continent was six to eight out of every ten persons, a number not seen by the British since Elizabethan times. By 1850, only 22% of the British worked in agriculture. Viewed another way, in 1600 the average farmer in Great Britain had produced enough food to support his family and half an additional one. By 1800 that same farmer could feed his own family and one and one-half more. By the mid-19th century, Great Britain had the lowest proportion of its workforce in agriculture than any other country in the entire world. Thus, the majority of the British agrarian workforce was not only providing food for their family but also farmed for the market.14
This ability of the British farmer to produce well beyond the subsistence level had an additional component. By the 19th century the agrarian worker harvested enough fodder to sustain a large draught animal force that contributed to increased productivity not only for the farms but also provided labor for the mines, growing manufacturing enterprises, and transportation. Scholars have estimated that an individual can produce only 1/10th the foot-pounds per hour as the horse, and that three oxen provide the equivalent work of two horses. There were approximately 19 million acres under cultivation in Great Britain in 1820. Just ten years prior, figures point to about 1.2 million horses in the nation of which 0.8 million were used in agriculture. By the turn of the 20th century those numbers had increased to roughly 3.21 million and 1.51 million, respectively. Using these numbers, it is estimated that almost six horses existed for every 100 acres of British arable land in 1820. Comparing the French animal numbers in a corresponding period underscores the greater productivity of the British. In 1820 France had an estimated 52 million acres under cultivation and 1.87 horse equivalents (horses and oxen), resulting in 3.6 horses per 100 acres of arable land or nearly 40% less than Great Britain. Draught animals also had an important uses well beyond the normal tempo of planting and harvesting the land. A large number of draught animals also produced additional manure and promoted higher cereal yields and in no small way contributed to a healthy diet. Furthermore, considerable animal labor was used in clearing land and transporting marl, lime, shells, chalk, and organic manure to the fields for application, sometimes at a distance of several miles from their supply points such as pits or stalls. It is estimated that 100 to 150 tons of marl had to be applied per acre. Thus, an estate of 100 acres required repeated trips back and forth, resulting in thousands of ton-miles of transport. This level of agricultural productivity resulted in an overall 43% increase in British farm output in the 18th century, and productivity improved further in the next century. Although there were exceptions, by 1800 the general nature of the English agricultural workforce had evolved gradually over the course of 200 years and consisted of the large landowners, tenant farmers, and a class of landless wage laborers.15
World History
