Editing British Agricultural Revolution (section)

== Term ==
Called "British", the term implies that the revolution began in Britain, not that it existed solely in Britain. Other countries in Europe<ref name=Allen2000/><ref>The agricultural productivity per worker also rose across Europe in the 19th century. P. Bairoch, "Niveau de developpement economique de 1810 a 1910," ''Annales: economies, societes, civilisations'', 20, (1965): pp 1091—17.</ref> (including France,<ref name=Allen2000/><ref>Also for France, P. T. Hoffman, ''Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450-1815'', New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 135.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Newell |first1=William H. |title=The Agricultural Revolution in Nineteenth-Century France |journal=The Journal of Economic History |date=1973 |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=697–731 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700079171 |jstor=2116783 }}</ref> [[Prussia]] (Germany),<ref>In Prussia, the share of non-agricultural manpower rose by 30% between 1815 and 1849. [[Richard Tilly]], "Capital formation in Germany in the nineteenth century," ''Cambridge Economic History of Europe'', eds. Peter Mathias, & M. M. Postan, Cambridge University Press, 1978, vol 7, p 441.</ref><ref>Also for Prussia, Michael Kopsidis, & Nikolaus Wolf, "Agricultural Productivity across Prussia during the Industrial Revolution," ''Journal of Economic History'', vol. 72, no. 3 (2012), pp. 634-670.</ref><ref>Also for Prussia, Christof Dipper, ''Deutsche Geschichte, 1648–1789'', Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1991, pp 91-102.</ref><ref>Also for Prussia, Walther Hoffmann, ''Das Wachstum der deutschen Wirtschaft seit der Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts'', Berlin: Springer, 1965, pp 202-215.</ref> and Russia<ref>In Russia in 1867 – 1915, cereal yields increased by 48% and in 1861 [[serfdom]] was abolished, indicating increase in output per peasant. Владимир Обухов, "Движение урожаев зерновых культур в Европейской России в период 1883-1915," ''Исторические Материалы'', 2015, https://istmat.org/node/21585</ref><ref>Also for Russia, В. Г. Растянников, & И. В. Дерюгина, ''Урожайность хлебов в России. 1795-2007'', Москва: Институт востоковедения, 2009, p 71.</ref>), East Asia<ref>In Japan the yields took off in the 1880s. Brown, Lester R., (2012). ''Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity'', (New York & London: W. W. Norton), p 72</ref><ref>J. I. Nakamura, ''Agricultural Production and the Economic Development of Japan, 1873–1922'', Princeton University Press, 1966.</ref> and North America<ref>In the US between 1860 and 1890, the production of basic agricultural commodities, such as wheat, corn and cotton, outstripped all previous figures. ''Agricultural Statistics, 1910''. Washington: US Department of Agriculture, 1911.</ref><ref>The productivity per farmer also rose. By 1880, the farm population in the US declined to 43.8% of the total population despite large increase in the farmland since the 1860s. "Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970," US Census Bureau, 1975, p 457, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1975/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1970.html</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rasmussen |first1=Wayne D. |title=The Civil War: A Catalyst of Agricultural Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3741036 |journal=Agricultural History |date=1965 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=187–195 |jstor=3741036 }}</ref> followed suit in the next two centuries. The Second Agricultural Revolution was much like the [[Neolithic Revolution]] in that it occurred in many regions across the world in a short span of time.

The British origins of the revolution is the view shared by the British historians. The Dutch historians disagree. In the Netherlands between 1500 and 1650, the agricultural output per labourer rose by 80% leading to over 60% decline in manpower engaged in agriculture by 1650.<ref>Jan de Vries, & Ad van der Woude, ''The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500-1815'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp 672-673, 710.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Zanden |first1=Jan Luiten |last2=van Leeuwen |first2=Bas |title=Persistent but not consistent: The growth of national income in Holland 1347–1807 |journal=Explorations in Economic History |date=April 2012 |volume=49 |issue=2 |pages=119–130 |doi=10.1016/j.eeh.2011.11.002 }}</ref> From 1500 to 1750, the Dutch were faster than Britain in reducing the agricultural sector of population.<ref name=Allen2000>{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Robert C. |title=Economic structure and agricultural productivity in Europe, 1300-1800 |journal=European Review of Economic History |date=2000 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1017/S1361491600000125 |jstor=41377861 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4137786 |access-date=April 4, 2025}}</ref> The Netherlands were called "school room," or "home" of the modern agricultural revolution.<ref>C. K. Warner, ''Agrarian Conditions in Early Modern Europe'', London: Routledge, 1966, p 24.</ref> Notably, one of the innovations in the British Revolution was the "Dutch" light plough. English landowners and their agents who returned from exile in the Netherlands in the 17th century introduced Dutch methods and techniques.<ref>[[Herman Van der Wee]], ''The Low Countries in the Early Modern World'', Variorum: Amsterdam, 1993, p 55-57.</ref><ref>E. L. Jones, ''Agriculture and Economic Growth in England, 1650-1815'', London: Methuen, 1967, p 8.</ref>

The term "revolution" refers to increase in yields per land and labour. Innovations in agricultural technology and methods took place gradually rather than an abrupt sweeping alteration.<ref>[[J. D. Chambers]], & [[G. E. Mingay]], ''The Agricultural Revolution, 1750-1880'', London: Routledge, 1966, pp 2-3.</ref><ref>[[Dwight H. Perkins (economist)|Dwight Heald Perkins]], ''Agricultural Development in China'', Chicago: Routledge, 1969, pp 56-57.</ref>