The British Agricultural Revolution ( BSR ) is a term that describes the development of agriculture in parts of the present territory of Great Britain between the 15th and the end of the 19th centuries.
During this period, one can see a hitherto unprecedented increase in productivity and crop sizes that have ended the cycle of food shortages. Every continent in the world at one point in its history was experiencing a shortage of food. Due to these shortcomings, population growth was actually limited by the size of what the region could grow over a long period of time, including the possibility of short-term production disruptions. Food shortages occur when a region is short of food for a year or more and the region’s resources are insufficient to bring or grow more. Since this is usually a local phenomenon, the ability to transport food over longer distances has reduced the impact of hunger in individual regions.
BSR has been going on for many centuries (rather evolution than revolution) and was a forerunner or occurred at the same time with similar changes in Europe and the colonies. The key to the BDS was the development of various agricultural technologies aimed at preventing the loss of nutrients from the earth during agriculture. At the same time, more fruitful plant varieties were bred that could bring a greater yield per acre. Farmers, using the latest tools, could produce more crops with fewer helpers. BSR accelerated as the Industrial Revolution and advances in chemistry created wealth, scientific knowledge and technology for more organized development of new fertilizers and new, more productive agricultural machinery. New crops, such as potatoes (appeared around 1600), corn, etc., were imported from the New World, improving fertility per acre of land.
The BSR and the British Industrial Revolution developed simultaneously. Without the advent of large quantities of food to feed a growing urban population, an industrial revolution would not have been possible. Without capital investments, tools, metals, an increase in the number of markets for agricultural products created by the industrial revolution, the BSR would also be impossible. Each so-called “revolution” supported and pushed forward the other two - they were (as in our days) connected to each other.
Literature
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