How did changes in agriculture affect the industrial revolution?
Image by jalexartis
Designed to fit in with the landscaping of my yard.
Question by pollockbritteny: How did changes in agriculture affect the industrial revolution?
Give your answer to this question below!
4 Responses to How did changes in agriculture affect the industrial revolution?
Leave a Reply
It’s a chicken and egg thing. As more technology became available to farmers, few humans were needed on the farm and thus migrated to cities looking for industrial work. More humans to work in factories = lower cost per person allowing more factories to be built, etc (producing more ag technology resulting in even fewer humans on the farm and more heading to the cities and the cycle repeats…and repeats).
Google ‘urban migration’ and you’ll learn more about the effects of tech on the ag industry.
apleyden
December 25, 2012 at 11:13 am
When humans developed agriculture, it allowed populations to grow. More reliable food supply, more people survived. With more people, specialists were able to spend time creating things and not searching for food. Some historians propose that the importance of determining the right time to plant and harvest gave rise to the increasing need for more precise time keeping. The development of machines that kept time gave rise to a group of specialists that made machines. More people, more machines, increasing urbanization-the results are all around us.
Platypus
December 25, 2012 at 12:03 pm
The revolution actually started with the agriculture. Due to a large availabilty of food (enclosures, new technolog, etc…) there was an unprecedented growth of population. So people migrated to cities in search of work, and cities like Manchester and London became destinations for migrants from the countryside, thus providing labour for the Industrial Revolution.
meg
December 25, 2012 at 12:27 pm
A more productive English agriculture allowed a smaller number of people to feed the rest of the population. In fact the percentage of those engaged in the agricultural sectors fell from 80% to 40%. This freed up a huge work force for the industrial sector. But that is not the whole point. As well, population increase was sustained without increasing privation, that is, the growing population was adequately fed. Finally, a more fully capitalistic agriculture generated (for landowners) profits which were in part invested in industry and transportations infrastructure (canals and railways).
CanProf
December 25, 2012 at 12:38 pm