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Changes in the institutional context under which farming was carried out are important for their impact on output and productivity, but they are also of great significance in their own right because they are concerned with the structure and organisation of agricultural production and with the lives of those working on the land. The bulk of this chapter is taken up with landholding and social relationships in the countryside. This involves considering changes in the ways in which land was held; particularly the establishment of leasehold as the almost universal form of tenure by the nineteenth century, and the elimination of most common rights. These two processes were often, but not necessarily, associated with the process of enclosure. Enclosure also influenced the process of social differentiation; that is changes in the relative size and importance of different social groups, particularly in their relation to the holding of land. In a nutshell, by 1850 most of the land of England was farmed by tenant farmers under conditions of private property, renting their farms for a period of years from landlords, and employing landless labourers to work on their farms. But before considering how these conditions evolved, the chapter begins with a survey of the main developments in the marketing of agricultural produce between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth century. The market A market is a place that provides a forum for the meeting of buyers and sellers who exchange commodities for money. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter returns to the theme of Chapter One. It re-emphasises the case for an ‘agricultural revolution’, or rather an ‘agrarian revolution’ consisting of two related transformations; first a transformation in output and productivity, and second, a transformation in the institutional framework of farming. The chapter concludes with an exploration of some ideas about the driving forces behind these agrarian changes; first in terms of responses to market prices, and second through the social relations of production embodied in agrarian capitalism. Before that, however, the first part of the chapter returns to the question of regional variety in farming discussed in Chapter Two, following a brief comparison of farming in the mid-nineteenth century with farming in the early sixteenth century. High farming The apogee of the conventional ‘agricultural revolution’ in 1850 was ‘high farming’. ‘High’ was used as an adverb meaning excellent, and while many contemporary farmers regarded high farming as excellent, its meaning came to be associated with an intensive system of farming with high inputs and high outputs. The basis of high farming was mixed farming embodying the principles of the Norfolk four-course; but by 1850 the rotation had been extended and production intensified. In many light-soil areas, high farming was intensive mixed farming, with a corn crop taken two years in every four or five, and the remainder of the arable under fodder. By the 1850s, catch crops had been introduced on the short fallows between the major crops, so that fodder crops now included swedes, turnips, rape, vetches, kale, mangolds, rye grass, clover, cabbages, sainfoin and kohl-rabi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Included in Gregory King's many calculations made during the final decade of the seventeenth century are his estimates of the future population of England. He expected the population of the country to grow from 5.5 million in 1700, to 6.42 million by 1800, and to 7.35 million by 1900. In fact, as Figure 3.1 and Table 3.5(a) indicate, the population of England stood at 8.66 million in 1801 and 30 million in 1901. His forecast for the maximum population of the country was around 11 million people, which he did not expect to be reached until the year 3500 (in fact it was achieved by 1820). King's projections were so wide of the mark because he thought the country had insufficient land to support more people. His assumption was that, with a finite area of land and an agricultural technology that was virtually static, anything other than a very gradual growth in population was impossible. This assumption was based on a lesson from history. Before the mid-eighteenth century English population seemed to have a natural ceiling of around 5.5 million people. Whenever population grew (during the Roman occupation, in the thirteenth century, and again in the sixteenth century) agriculture had the greatest difficulty in meeting the increased demand for food. In each case there appears to have been a check: the rise in population was halted because the increase in agricultural output was insufficient to sustain the rise in population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An understanding of the rural world of early modern England must start with the activity that occupied most of the population: the practical business of farming. This chapter begins with a description of farming operations and considers the constraints farmers faced in attempting to maintain or increase their output of crops and livestock. Farming was not a uniform activity, so some of the differences between farming enterprises are discussed in terms of their products, labour requirements, income flows and relations with the market. The chapter then investigates the land being farmed in terms of patterns of ownership and rights to property. The next section moves from farms to farmers, looking at their social status, and at their social and economic relationships within the local community. Finally, the chapter explores the relationships between these various elements of the rural economy within the context of a framework of rural regions. Farming Five hundred years ago English farmers grew four major cereal crops: wheat, rye, barley and oats, together with the pulse crops of peas and beans; they also kept cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry. Although these crops and livestock are kept by farmers today, cereal crops have been changed dramatically by plant breeding during the twentieth century, and livestock characteristics have been transformed by selective breeding. During the last five centuries sugar beet, potatoes, rape, turnips and swedes amongst others have been added to the sixteenth-century list of crops, although all but sugar beet were introduced in the three centuries before 1850. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]