During the late 18th and early 19th century if a Welshman wanted to rent farmland, he would have to pay his rent money to an English landlord. By the time of the Rising the farmland was run on an annual tenancy agreement. Having only one year to harvest enough crops for the next year's rent, and very rarely succeeding, they would end up in debt. To add to the problem of debt, the money was collected not by the absentee landowner but by debt collectors who would most likely have scared the farmers into giving up the rent. The farmer would have to move on with the dissatisfaction of knowing that an English man had caused his downfall.
By that point farming areas were subject to enclosures. After 1780 the enclosure acts had accelerated, leaving the labouring classes dependant on wages and making them homeless, this forced them into the new cities to provide a cheap mobile defenceless labour force for the new industrial revolution. It was argued that the enclosures would create a more efficient system of farming but there is little evidence of any concern for the social impact of them.
E.P. Thompson wrote of the enclosures, "Enclosures (when all the sophistication's are allowed for) was a plain enough case of class robbery, played according to the fair rules of property and laid down by parliament of property owners and lawyers."
Before the enclosure movement, people didn't have to survive on their wages alone, they would have kept a few livestock to sell and eat along with ownership of a small strip of land that could be used to grow a little crop. Once the enclosure movement was in place the labourer would not have the time or means to keep the little land and the livestock that he had and so he would have to rely solely on the weekly wages.
From A General View of the Agriculture of the Country of Leicestershire, by W Pitt, 1809. "The alteration of circumstances by this enclosure may be stated thus: no more corn grown, nor greater number of cattle kept, or increased produce of butter, cheese of beef, no more sheep in number kept, but of better quality, with much fewer losses and sold fat instead of lean; from which cause as well as from the greater convenience of managing land concentrated together, instead of dispersed and intermixed, the occupier is enabled to pay greater rent.
Economic conditions at the time Scheper-Hughes visited were grim. The loss of several social institutions, such as schools and churches, affected moral among these rural communities (lecture). Also the initiatives by the Irish Department of Lands to forced farmers into early retirement, and land was then bought by agricultural capitalists caused changes to traditional farming life (Scheper-Hughes 107-108). With this initiative there was less emphasis on farming and landownership became more a symbol of past traditions (Scheper-Hughes 104).
Secondly, death rate decreased so more servants lived along with indentures which made landless freemen mad. Thirdly, farmers were able to buy slaves, be merchants, and get credit. In the 1670s society had conflict with landowners and the landless.
The increased demand for land, combined with this new ability to purchase the land, led to a change in the demographics of settlement. Instead the close protected towns, they began to settle down in individual farms outside of the towns where they could purchase larger parcels of land for less money. This was a catalyst in the transition away from the church governed society and set the foundation for a society run by the
...kments were transformed and used as allotments. This aimed to allow the nation its own self sufficient food supply, maintaining the availability of food stuffs, which would otherwise of been lacking during that time due to blockage of imports to Britain.
Agriculture had controlled the British economy for centuries. Throughout the 18th century, after a long period of enclosures, new farming systems formed an agricultural revolution that produced more crops to feed the growing population. In the beginning of the 19th century, land was of great political and economic significance the aristocracy and gentry owned much of the countryside, and their renters farmed and raised livestock. New tools, fertilizers and harvesting methods were familiarized, resulting in more productivity. Agriculture remained a main provider of employment, and was supported by the industry.
...s. These lands were “usually in less desirable locations and discouraged any successful transition to agriculture”.24
There was a great divide between the classes. While the Optimates’, or the new aristocracy, took more land, those who had once been small farm owners, found themselves not only landless, but also jobless. They migrated to the city. This put a drain on the limited supplies and left them feeling disenfranchised.
landowners to their poverty stricken laborers, who would then be able to begin a viable farm of
In 1700, small farms covered England’s territory. Wealthy landowners started to buy the land that the village farmers had once worked on. These landowners improved the farming methods they were used to which soon led to an agricultural revolution. After buying up most of the land of the village farmers, their increase of landholdings enabled them to cultivate more crops on larger fields. Enclosures were inside of these larger fields. Enclosures were the areas that landowners could experiment with more productive harvesting methods and seeding in order to determine if these experiments boosted crop yield. The Enclosure movement had two important results. First, landowners tried new agricultural methods. Second, large landowners forced small farmers to become tenant farmers or to give up farming and move to the cities. Jethro Tull was one of the first scientific farmers. He created an invention that dug deep seed sized holes, which helped more seeds take root and boosted crop yields. He made this in 1701 and called it the Seed Drill. Why did the industrial Revolution begin England, and what inventions spurred industrialization?
Ireland was an overpopulated, extremely poor country with no sign of improvement in the mid-19th century because of the “cottier” system in agriculture. Its labor class could only rely on potatoes as the main food source and what was worse was that people lacked the motivation to improve this situation. Mills regarded the cottiers system in Ireland as the poorest among all metayer agricultures in Britain and the continental Europe. Peasants in Ireland were deprived of their own work. No matter how hard they worked, they would find themselves the most impoverished across the Europe. The system of cottier disabled the ability for labors to be a permanent tenant. “There was, indeed, a numerous class of labors who (we may presume through the refusal either of proprietors or of tenants in possession to permit any further subdivision) had been unable to obtain even the smallest patch of land as permanent tenants.” (Mills, P352) In addition, the landlords were usually not able to pay the wages in money because the capital is not sufficient enough at that time. Thus, the peasants were paid in land. They were allowed to work on the land for certain period of time, and the output during that time is what they were paid as wages.
During the 1700s, farming changed greatly. The changes were for the better. It made farmers work a lot easier and allowed them to have more crops. Before the revolution farmers lives were hard and stressful. Then the agricultural revolution brought changes to crop rotation, the new inventions and the amount of land one farmer could farm in one year with little help.
A major cause for the Industrial Revolution was the enormous spurt of population growth in England. The increase in population meant that there were more people in surplus from agricultural jobs, and they had to find work in industrial factories. Enclosure brought forth a great increase in farming production and profits. Farming was improved through the use of crop rotation, enclosures, and the division on farms across England. Crops that were grown consisted of turnips, barley, clover, wheat. This improvement in farming caused a population explosion, which soon led to a higher demand for goods. The new means of production demanded new kinds of skills, new regulation in work, and a large labor force. The goods produced met immediate consumer demand and also created new demands. In the long run, industrialization raised the standard of living and overcame the poverty that most Europeans, who lived d...
The factory system, that developed during the Industrial Revolution, had a large impact on society and the lifestyles of the citizens of England. Beginning in 1760, many people were forced move from their farms outside of the major cities to inside of the cities. The farm landowners closed off their land and they were no longer available to lease, which caused numerous workers to lose their jobs.The development of machines that were water powered, such as the spinning jenny and water frame, made the process of weaving and spinning cloth easier and faster. With these technologies, the textile industry flourished and factory owners became very wealthy by forcing workers to work long hours for low salaries. Their low wages did not afford them to live comfortably, which meant that many people had to live in crowded buildings that were unsanitary. Not only did these factory workers have poor living conditions, but the working conditions in the factories were dangerous, especially for children. Life in England changed a considerable amount during the Industrial Revolution and the views of citizens were altered.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, society and economics were largely determined by land and agriculture. Growth was slow and people relied on traditional means to survive. The majority of societies were farmers who raised crops and animals for a living. However, in the eighteenth century, the population exploded and grew at a significant rate. The four primary factors behind this growth are: a decline in death rate, an increase in the birth rate, the virtual elimination of plagues, and an increase in the availability of food [[i]]. This burst of population created an excessive amount of workers, who were not needed in the agriculture society. The need for workers in agriculture decreased due to the advances in technology and tools. A large number of people as well as perspective farmers had to find jobs elsewhere. This is one of the important factors in the shift of the population from rural areas to the more urban cities.
Overton, Mark. Agricultural revolution in England: the transformation of the agrarian economy,1500-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Print.