Lesson 3: Britain in Transformation
In this lesson you will learn how Britain was totally transformed by its three great revolutions in agriculture, industry, and transportation, all three which were also to change the world forever, bringing in the factory system and opening up new lands for settlement.
The Agricultural Revolution
In l8th century England farmers were generally reluctant to introduce major changes except to increase the amount of land available for the raising of sheep and cattle. Land enclosures were protested vigorously by the peasantry, but they did result in better management, allowed for selective breeding of stock, and brought forth experiments with fertilization and machinery that produced better crops. In Britain, population growth began a rapid rise in the eighteenth century. It was simply a matter of the nation being better fed.
In l70l Jethro Tull's seed-planting drill enormously increased crop production and lessened waste. In l733 he invented the two-wheeled plough and the four-coulter plough, both of which, strenuously resisted at first by his laborers, had a great impact on methods of cultivation. Another great pioneer was "Turnip" Townsend, secretary of state under George II. He introduced the practice of crop rotation into England, using turnips and clover to revitalize land left fallow and to provide winter feed for livestock, whose manure in turn fertilized his fields.
Townsend's innovations were followed by those of Thomas Coke, who worked on the principle: "No fodder, no beasts: no beasts, no manure; no manure, no crops." At Holkham, in Norfolk, Coke continually worked on ways to improve crop yield, contributing greatly to better breeds of both cattle and sheep.
Most of England's outstanding success in producing better breeds of sheep and cattle is attributed to Robert Bakewell who pioneered methods of selection and breeding. Farm animals became fatter, hardier and healthier. Britain became a meat-eating nation, but it also enjoyed better and more reliable supplies of bread and vegetables.
Even as early as l707, England was enjoying the fruits of its explorations and settlements in India. The opening of Fortnum and Mason's in London in that year attests to the increased demand for foreign delicacies, English farmers having produced sufficient basic necessities. In particular, farmers had realized that beef and mutton would be more profitable than powers of draught and quantities of wool.
In the latter part of the century, Arthur Young's tenure as secretary of the Board of Agriculture ensured that the new farming methods were accepted throughout the nation (though it took many years for English farmers to utilize the iron plow, developed in l784 by James Small).
In l786, Scotsman Andrew Meilde developed the first successful threshing machine. Following the publication of Lady Montagu's Inocculation against Smallpox in l7l8, and after the work of Edward Jenner in the l790's, the disease began to be eliminated in England. Hand in hand with the vast improvements in agriculture and medicine, an industrial revolution was taking place that would also change the world forever. Progress in agriculture was to be dwarfed by what took place in industry.
