Medieval: Tudor

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Baconian Method

Science has outgrown the human mind and its limited capacities .

"Can scientific discovery really be automated?

I believe it can, using an approach that we have known about for centuries. The answer to this question can be found in the work of Sir Francis Bacon, the 17th-century English philosopher and a key progenitor of modern science.

The first reiterations of the scientific method can be traced back many centuries earlier to Muslim thinkers such as Ibn al-Haytham, who emphasised both empiricism and experimentation. However, it was Bacon who first formalised the scientific method and made it a subject of study. In his book Novum Organum (1620), he proposed a model for discovery that is still known as the Baconian method. He argued against syllogistic logic for scientific synthesis, which he considered to be unreliable. Instead, he proposed an approach in which relevant observations about a specific phenomenon are systematically collected, tabulated and objectively analysed using inductive logic to generate generalisable ideas. In his view, truth could be uncovered only when the mind is free from incomplete (and hence false) axioms.

The Baconian method attempted to remove logical bias from the process of observation and conceptualisation, by delineating the steps of scientific synthesis and optimising each one separately. Bacon’s vision was to leverage a community of observers to collect vast amounts of information about nature and tabulate it into a central record accessible to inductive analysis. In Novum Organum, he wrote: ‘Empiricists are like ants; they accumulate and use. Rationalists spin webs like spiders. The best method is that of the bee; it is somewhere in between, taking existing material and using it.’

The Baconian method is rarely used today. It proved too laborious and extravagantly expensive; its technological applications were unclear. However, at the time the formalisation of a scientific method marked a revolutionary advance. Before it, science was metaphysical, accessible only to a few learned men, mostly of noble birth. By rejecting the authority of the ancient Greeks and delineating the steps of discovery, Bacon created a blueprint that would allow anyone, regardless of background, to become a scientist.

Bacon’s insights also revealed an important hidden truth: the discovery process is inherently algorithmic. It is the outcome of a finite number of steps that are repeated until a meaningful result is uncovered. Bacon explicitly used the word ‘machine’ in describing his method. His scientific algorithm has three essential components: first, observations have to be collected and integrated into the total corpus of knowledge. Second, the new observations are used to generate new hypotheses. Third, the hypotheses are tested through carefully designed experiments.

If science is algorithmic, then it must have the potential for automation. This futuristic dream has eluded information and computer scientists for decades, in large part because the three main steps of scientific discovery occupy different planes. Observation is sensual; hypothesis-generation is mental; and experimentation is mechanical. Automating the scientific process will require the effective incorporation of machines in each step, and in all three feeding into each other without friction. Nobody has yet figured out how to do that."

Rise of Modern Science:
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/birth-modern-science/

Mathematics - 1519 to 2019

500 Years of Mathematics: Are We Living In A New Golden Age? > .

BBC Farm Series

Agricultural Transformation (18thC-19thC) ↠

It appears that, in a never-ending Red Queen game, BBC has complained and YouTube has eradicated episodes (and channels) carrying uploads of Victorian and Edwardian Farm. When the inevitable happens, and some brave soul uploads more free advertising for the DVDs, I will update the playlists. So far, Tales from the Green Valley, Tudor Monastery Farm, and Wartime Farm remain intact.

In chronological order by period, not television production:

Tudor Monastery Farm
TMF playlist contents.

Tales From the Green Valley
TFGV playlist contents.

Victorian Farm
VF playlist contents.

Edwardian Farm
EF playlist contents.

Wartime Farm
WF playlist contents.

Land Use in Britain – Overview.

Land Use in Britain – Stone Age to Iron Age.

Land Use in Britain – Romans and Vikings.

Land Use in Britain – Normans bring Feudalism.
Land Use in Britain – Beyond Early Modern.

Playlist Wild Food.

Pilgrimage of Grace

Pilgrimage of Grace > .

Church and Crown to Parliament

The Early Middle Ages, 284--1000 - Yale >> .

Henry II and Becket > .

Medieval Superstition - Kempley Church > .

Monastic Life > .

Christina of Markyate was born with the name Theodora in Huntingdon, England, about 1096–98 and died about 1155. She was an anchoress and Prioress who came from a wealthy Anglo-Saxon family trying to accommodate with the Normans at that time. She became head of a community of nuns

St Mary's Church, Kempley.
This simple Norman church in Gloucestershire, remote from the village it once served, has the oldest timber roof of any building in England. Its greatest glory, however, comes from having some of the best preserved medieval wall paintings in Britain. Those in the chancel are particularly rare, dating from the early 12th century, and are the most complete set of Romanesque frescos in northern Europe.

The paintings are a vivid reminder of a time when church interiors were covered in such paintings. They tell stories from the Bible, depict the lives of saints, and show terrifying visions of demons and eternal damnation.

Magna Carta > .
In Our Time: The Magna Carta > .
Magna Carta - anth >> .
Magna Carta - 1215 - sh >> .
First Parliaments > .
Great Pestilence - Black Death arch >> .Peasants' Revolt > .
Peasants' Revolt - Great Rising of 1381 - arch >> .
Crime, Punishment, Government - rw >> .
Crime & Punishment - sh >> . Eight cases from across history which still shape the law today (
The Case of Proclamations, 1610 and later).

Medieval Church - sh >> .
Medieval Society - sh >> .

Luttrell Psalter & Books of Hours - sh >> .

Dissolution of the Monasteries > .
Greyfriars and Blackfriars > .
In Our Time Playlist >> .
Medieval Feudalism to Post-Industrial Capitalism >> .

The Court of Augmentations, also called Augmentation Court or simply The Augmentation, was established during the reign of King Henry VIII of England along with three lesser courts (those of General Surveyors, First Fruit and Tenths, and Wards and Liveries) following the dissolution of the monasteries. Its primary function was to gain better control over the land and finances formerly held by the Roman Catholic Church in the kingdom. It was incorporated into the Exchequer in 1554 as the augmentation office.

King Henry VIII, the Mind of a Tyrant: 01 > .
King Henry VIII, the Mind of a Tyrant: 02 > .

7. Late Medieval Religion and Its Critics > .
8. Reformation and Division, 1530-1558 > .
Early Modern England with Keith E. Wrightson - Yale >> .

Slow shift from anti-Lutheranism to using the Reformation > .

Course | History of the World to 1500 CE - Columbia >> .
Course | History of the World Since 1500 CE - Columbia >> .
Bilkent: Medieval Europe (500-1500) | CosmoLearning History >> .
European Civiliization (1648-1945) with John Merriman - Yale >> .
The Civil War and Reconstruction with David Blight - Yale >> .

The English activist John Lilburne (1615-57) is now remembered as one of the leading Levellers – campaigners for a government based on popular sovereignty, two centuries before the advent of mass representative democracy in Europe. But that was only part of a longer public career in which he took on every government he lived under, displaying extraordinary courage and fortitude, and in the process championing legal rights that are important to us all.

Drawn, hanged, and quartered

Execution of Hugh le Despenser (the younger), 1st Lord Despenser (c. 1286 – 24 November 1326.)

Grisly, superstitious, and inhumane punishments:

In the third volume of his Institutes, Edward Coke (1552-1634) writes that the condemned trader also loses all his property and titles.

The first recorded instance of a convicted felon's being drawn and quartering was in 1241, and the last on May 1, 1820, when John Brunt, William Davidson, James Ings, Arthur Thistlewood and Richard Tidd were hanged and beheaded (the government having commuted the other traditionally inhumane components of the sentence).

William Wallace was drawn and quartered in 1305. Subsequently, his head was placed on a pole on London Bridge. His quartered body, in four pieces, was sent to Newcastle upon Tyne, Berwick, Perth and Sterling.

In response to the trial of Guy Fawkes in 1603, Coke recorded this description of traditional execution methods for treason:

"After a traitor has had his just trial, and is convicted ... he shall have his judgment: to be drawn to the place of execution from his prison, as being not worthy anymore to tread upon the face of earth whereof he was made. Also, for that he has been retrograde to nature, therefore is he drawn backward ....

"And whereas God has made the head of man the highest and most supreme part, as being his chief grace and ornament, he must be drawn with his head declining downward and lying so near the ground as may be, being thought unfit to take benefit of the common air.

"For which cause also he shall be strangled, being hanged up by the neck between heaven and earth as deemed unworthy of both or either, as likewise, that the eyes of men may behold and their hearts condemn him.

"Then he is to be cut down alive, and to have his privy parts cut off and burnt before his face as being unworthily begotten and unfit to lead any generation after him. His bowels ... taken out and burnt, who inwardly had conceived and harboured such horrible treason.

"After, to have his head cut off, which had imagined the mischief.

"And lastly, his body to be quartered and the quarters set up in some high and eminent place, to the view and detestation of men, and to become prey for the fowls of the air.

"And this is a reward due to traitors whose heart be hardened. For it is a psychic of state and government to let out our corrupt blood from the heart."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Despenser_the_younger .

Crimes ..

Birth, Marriage, Children, Life, Death

Birth, Marriage, Children, Life, Death

A History of Childbirth: Delivery - LiHo > .
Part 1, Conception: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A8yK...

Part 2, Pregnancy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6zB8...

Part 3, Labor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhEi7...

Medieval Peasant Women - Work, Food, Life - HiHi > .

Sources: Cassidy, Tina. Birth: the surprising history of how we are born; Thorndike Press, 2007.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/p... .

https://www.fertstert.org/article/S00... .

https://www.bustle.com/articles/97930... .

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/4... .

https://www.elle.com/fashion/personal... .

https://en.wikipedia.org https://www.britannica.com .

A Day In the Life Living With the Plague > .

Pre-Modern Death in Childbirth

Pre-modern childbirth was more dangerous than it is in the most dangerous-to-birth-in countries today. Some evidence from New England suggests an average maternal mortality rate of 2.5%. That is, for every 1000 births, there would be 25 women who died. In countries with the maternal mortality closest to that, (calculated over multiple births) 1 in 6 childbearing woman will die from complications of childbearing; we can expect that the rate was similar in pre-modern times.

http://birthnerd.blogspot.ca/2011/07/pre-modern-death-in-childbirth.html .

https://www.tudorsociety.com/childbirth-in-medieval-and-tudor-times-by-sarah-bryson/ .

Childbirth in Medieval and Tudor Times by Sarah Bryson - The Tudor Society

Medieval Lives - Birth, Marriage, Death (Series) - HuDa >> .

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCpYM0jg1d5M0XcIp4yj2kZF4Cws07HgL .

Medieval Life - Birth, Children, Marriage, Death - Tony - playlist
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtakTnKQQMCzgnwhkhJrO5NE2mTuE8eN4

Women, Medieval to 19th C: She Wolves, Harlots, Whores, Heroines, Queens, Scandalous - archanth >> .

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrYzzr8yja6FbLdIk0yyO6G8MUiJSJzS7 .

Society: Children, Women, Birth, Marriage, Death, Dance ; Medieval to Modern - archanth >> .

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrYzzr8yja6EXGbIsrT_V07Mvj-PZGtRt .

Pandemics & the Economy | The Lasting Effects of the Black Death > .
How did Medieval People respond to the Black Death? - same > .
Black Death Explained in 8 Minutes - CaHi > .

History of the Black Death - 1 - fph > .
History of the Black Death - 2 - fph > .
History of the Black Death - 3 - fph > .

Sweating Sickness

sudor anglicus - Sweating Plague - Deadly - WeHi > .

1485 - 1551 (England) - Europe 1528 > .

Sweating sickness, also known as English sweating sickness or English sweat or (Latin) sudor anglicus, was a mysterious and contagious disease that struck England and later continental Europe in a series of epidemics beginning in 1485. The last outbreak occurred in 1551, after which the disease apparently vanished. The onset of symptoms was sudden, with death often occurring within hours. Its cause remains unknown, although it has been suggested that an unknown species of hantavirus was responsible.

John Caius was a practising physician in Shrewsbury in 1551, when an outbreak occurred, and he described the symptoms and signs of the disease in A Boke or Counseill Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse (1552), which is the main historical source of knowledge of the disease. It began very suddenly with a sense of apprehension, followed by cold shivers (sometimes very violent), giddiness, headache, and severe pains in the neck, shoulders, and limbs, with great exhaustion. The cold stage might last from half an hour to three hours, after which the hot and sweating stage began. The characteristic sweat broke out suddenly without any obvious cause. A sense of heat, headache, delirium, rapid pulse, and intense thirst accompanied the sweat. Palpitation and pain in the heart were frequent symptoms, as well. No skin eruptions were noted by observers, including Caius. In the final stages, there was either general exhaustion and collapse, or an irresistible urge to sleep, which Caius thought was fatal if the patient were permitted to give way to it. One attack did not produce immunity, and some people suffered several bouts before dying. The disease tended to occur in summer and early autumn.

Hanseatic League - London Kontor

Close to the present-day Cannon Street station sat the London base of the Hanseatic League - a powerful trading network for hundreds of years, stretching all the way from the East of England to the heart of Russia. It was one of the most successful trade alliances in history - at its height the League could count on the allegiance of nearly 200 towns across northern Europe.

London was never formally one of the Hanseatic cities, but it was a crucial link in the chain - known as a kontor or trading post. The community of German merchants who lived on the banks of the Thames were exempt from customs duties and certain taxes.

“At any given time they probably had about 15% market share of English imports and exports.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/A2MFANtn3Z/hanseatic_league .

Hansa - Northern Silk Road - Economic History - K&G > .

The Hanseatic League > .

History Network Podcast >> .

Cloth Industry - Medieval & Tudor

Although the playlist below depicts cloth production after the 15th century, processing would be little changed since the late medieval period.

Links to specific activities demonstrated in documentary:
Sheep Shearing excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Wool sorting excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Church monopoly of wool trade excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Washing sheep excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Carding and spinning on Great (Walking) Wheel excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Weaving excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Fulling Mill excerpt in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .
Stretching fulled cloth on tenterhooks in Tudor Monastery Farm (new window) .

Sheep Shearing with blade shears .

Norse Crafts - Spinning, Weaving, Leather .

Spindle & Distaff .

Spinning Wheels .

Weaving .

Natural Pigments, Plant Dyes .

Links to specific activities demonstrated in documentary:
Woad excerpt in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .
Ochre excerpt 1 in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .
Ochre excerpt 2 in Secrets of the Castle (new window) .

Tudor Xmas

Tudors' 12 Days Of Christmas Ritual | Tudor Monastery Farm > .

What Tudors Ate at a Royal Banquet - HiHi > .

The Tudor period occurred between 1485 and 1603 in England and Wales and includes the Elizabethan period during the reign of Elizabeth I until 1603. The Tudor period coincides with the dynasty of the House of Tudor in England that began with the reign of Henry VII (b. 1457, r. 1485–1509).

Following the Black Death and the agricultural depression of the late 15th century, the population began to increase. In 1520, it was around 2.3 million. By 1600 it had doubled to 4 million. The growing population stimulated economic growth, accelerated the commercialisation of agriculture, increased the production and export of wool, encouraged trade, and promoted the growth of London.

The high wages and abundance of available land seen in the late 15th century and early 16th century were replaced with low wages and a land shortage. Various inflationary pressures, perhaps due to an influx of New World gold and a rising population, set the stage for social upheaval with the gap between the rich and poor widening. This was a period of significant change for the majority of the rural population, with manorial lords beginning the process of enclosure of village lands that previously had been open to everyone.

Historian John Guy (1988) argued that "England was economically healthier, more expansive, and more optimistic under the Tudors" than at any time since the Roman occupation.

Land Use in Britain - Early Modern through Agricultural Revolution

After 1500 AD:

Land Use in Britain (full version) – The Agricultural Revolution.

Sections:
Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
Markets.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

Bibliography for all segments (opens in separate page)

Farming Systems and Landholding:

Land tenure had long been regulated by local custom, but, by the end of the fifteenth century major shifts in landholding occurred – paving the way for agrarian reform and the agricultural revolution.

Social status was determined by birth and social origins, and by property. There was a wide range of wealth within each class, and wealth enabled mobility, usually after one generation, between status groups. The occupational label ‘farmer’ was not widespread until the eighteenth century – prior to this, the terms denoting community status were used. Specific terms were used to denote specialist agricultural activities: Drover, Grazier, Ploughman, Marshman, Shepherd, Gardener, and Fisherman.

Ranked from lowest to highest on the agricultural hierarchy were: laborer, husbandman, yeoman / gentleman, esquire, knight, baron, earl, duke, and monarch. Gentlemen represented only 2% of the population, but owned a quarter to a third of all farmland by the early sixteenth century (doesn’t this sound like the third world?) The wealthier and better educated ‘gentleman farmer’ was able to read about, and exploit, profitable innovations in agriculture – new crops, new plant species and animal breeds, new agricultural and management techniques. Further, economies of scale and political ‘clout’ enabled the wealthier landowners to expand their fortunes at the expense of their ‘inferiors.’

Tables: Tenure table : System of Estates table.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
Markets.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

The rhythm and grind of agriculture

Almost all agriculture in the early sixteenth century was mixed-farming, combining both arable and livestock husbandry. Grazing flocks and herds provided manure to the meadows and kept down bracken and sedge grasses.

Arable husbandry produces more food per acre for human consumption than does animal husbandry, however maintenance of some livestock remained essential to the farmer of early modern Britain. Aside from meat, dairy products, eggs, and skins, animals were essential for draught work until the industrial revolution, and for their manure until the twentieth century.

The medieval agricultural year, as depicted by Pietro de Crescenzi (c. 1230/35 – c. 1320)

(Comprehensive description of the medieval farming year.) In August or September arable land was ploughed. Land that had been used for pasture was ploughed up to five or six times, while arable fields were ploughed about four times. In wet areas, several feet separated the top of a ploughed ridge from the adjacent drainage furrow. Soil drainage was a major problem in Britain. Early attempts to control wetness involved the ploughing of deep ridges and furrows, trenching, and the digging of ditches. Hollow drains, filled with bushes or stones and covered with soil, first appeared in the seventeenth century. The modern subsurface ‘tile’ drain was not invented until the nineteenth century.

Remnant ridges and furrows, Wood Stanway, Gloucestershire.

Sheep grazing in curved ridges and furrows. Dumbleton, Gloucestershire.

Seed was broadcast-sown with one of the winter cereals in September or October. Farmers selectively sowed the seeds most likely to yield a good harvest. The winter cereals were wheat or rye, or a mixture of both, called ‘maslin’ or ‘mixlyn.’ From February to April, when the soil had warmed enough for an adequate tilth, the spring crops were sown – barley, or six-rowed bigg in the north; oats; and, peas and beans. Between sowing and harvesting, the fields were cleared of nutrient-competing weeds.

Hay was cut in June and July – scythe-mown grass was raked into ‘cocks’ then stored in the barn or in straw-thatched ‘ricks.’ The cereals were harvested in August or September. Winter grains were harvested before spring crops. Wheat and rye were ‘reaped’ with a small sickle, barley and oats were ‘mown’ with a larger scythe. The cut stalks were bound into sheaves, stacked into ‘stooks,’ and left in the field for a week or so to dry. Later the stooks were stored in a barn, or piled into straw-thatched ‘stacks.’ The fields were gleaned after the harvest – scoured for fallen grain – a laborious process performed by women and children. The labor of marling, creating a fine tilth, sowing, hoeing and pulling of turnips was performed during arable slack-times.

Throughout the year, grain was threshed as needed – this was a skilled procedure whereby grain was separated from the stalk by beating with a hinged, wooden flail. The grain was then winnowed to remove chaff, and passed through a sieve or corn screen to separate valuable grain from the seeds of nuisance weeds.

Pastures required little attention beyond clearing weeds, like thistles and docks, and removing pests such as moles. Livestock required fodder over the winter months – hay, softened barley, peas and beans, carrots, and turnips; and oats for horses. As much as twenty per cent of the arable harvest was reserved as fodder for livestock. Although livestock husbandry required less labor than arable farming, the livestock required considerable attention – young animals were born in the spring, and must soon be weaned. Young male livestock not required for breeding purposes were castrated. Sheep were washed and clipped in June. From May to October sheep were folded, and cattle were sometimes tethered, on arable land – usually on the fallow. Animals were bred in September and October (winter cereals were sown in these months.) Pigs, hens, geese, ducks, bees, and sometimes pigeons, were also raised. Depending upon location, a farmer might also tend a kitchen garden, an orchard, or a section of woodland.

Regular daily chores included the cutting of wood for fuel, and the maintenance and repair of buildings, fences, hedges, and ditches. On a daily basis, dairy cattle and sheep were milked in the morning and the evening – the milk was processed by women into butter and cheese. Many farmers, particularly those who specialized in raising livestock, had time to supplement their incomes through cottage industry, making crafts, or working at a trade.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
Markets.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production

Crops grown and animals raised varied from region to region, and from one farm to another within a region. English agriculture gradually moved from the subsistence-level small farm, characterized by trade of surplus at local markets, to more efficient regional agricultural specialization supplying national and international markets.

Regardless of the local soils, climate, settlement patterns and community organization, all farmers faced similar agricultural challenges. The main obstacles to food production continued to be loss of soil fertility, the vagaries of weather, and losses due to weeds, animal pests, and diseases of plants and animals. After the sixteenth century, limited availability of land became an increasingly widespread problem.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Markets.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

Enclosure and Engrossing

Common rights were initially extended to those who possessed a cottage and some arable land – in areas with plentiful land, all inhabitants had access to common grazing. Rights to common pasture were unlimited in the less fertile pastoral areas of the Pennines and the northern counties, around the lowland forests, and in fen areas. Despite losses due to coastal erosion in some areas, large areas of saltmarsh were reclaimed for grazing. Grazing land was increasingly scarce in all heavily populated mixed-farming districts and in some pastoral areas of the west Midlands.

Wool prices in England in 1343 (Marks per sack).
In England the "mark" never appeared as a coin, but was only used as a unit of account. It was apparently introduced in the 10th century by the Danes. According to 19th century sources, it was first equivalent to 100 pence, but after the Norman Conquest (1066) it was worth 160 pence, or 13 shillings and 4 pence, i.e. two-thirds of a pound sterling (approx. 250 g in silver).

The high price of wool was a stimulus to enclosure. Landowners who acquired control of larger plots of land were able to enclose their fields – containing their own flocks, and excluding their neighbors’ animals. The economic and social consequences of enclosure differed from one region to another. If adequate common-land remained for the grazing of other villagers’ livestock there was no outcry, but riots and disturbances ensued in counties where enclosure caused hardship by depriving the community’s livestock of grazing. The greatest problems occurred in lowland villages with inadequate quantities of common-land, or in those with an expanding population that had relied upon previously large areas of common-field. Sixteenth century enclosures aroused considerable indignation in the East Midlands. However, enclosure caused no difficulties in the sparsely populated, pastoral Pennines. Most land had already been enclosed without consternation in Essex, Suffolk, Kent, Hertfordshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall.

Enclosure of common fields between 1700 and 1800 CE.

Estimates suggest that only 2 per cent of the land was enclosed in the sixteenth century, but that enclosure jumped to 24 per cent of land in the seventeenth century, 13 per cent in the eighteenth century, and 11.4 per cent from 1800 to 1914.

Engrossing involved the consolidation of two or more farms into a single farm. Enclosure and engrossing were independent processes – both procedures could affect farms, or one transformation could proceed without the other. Both processes caused depopulation, but engrossing created a greater problem because it displaced people directly from the land.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

Markets

Markets function to redistribute commodities from suppliers to producers. At the outset of the sixteenth century England had about 1800 market towns, supporting populations calculated to be around 10,000. Each town held markets once or twice weekly for its small hinterland of about 10 miles radius. There was little inter-market trading except during fairs held once or twice annually; goods from a wider area were traded at the market fairs. Prices were governed by customs and regulations, not by supply and demand.

After the end of the eighteenth century, few market towns remained but urbanization had increased. Most commodities were traded at a national level, some items were transported large distance from regions of specialized agriculture. Transportation was commonly along rivers and newly constructed waterways, along much improved roads, and eventually by railroad. Competitive bid-pricing predominated, the variety and quantity of traded goods had vastly increased, and middlemen abounded.

Livestock, being able to transport themselves, and animal products, fetching higher prices per weight, were the first commodities moved from localized markets, through inter-markets, to national markets (by the seventeenth century.) Grain was traded at the inter-market level by the sixteenth century.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
Markets.

The ingredients of agricultural revolution

British agricultural changes, 1500-1750 (FULL version).

A complex accumulation of incremental changes contributed to the revolution in agricultural efficiency that accelerated in the nineteenth century.

The total acreage under cultivation increased through reclamation of marsh, saltmarsh, rough pastures, heathlands, and upland wastes, and through further clearance of woodland. However, agricultural technological advances played a greater rôle in increased productivity – for example, windmills aided the continuing drainage of reclaimed fenlands; and, hollow drains, and later tile drains, improved the management of England’s heavy, wet soils.

Soil fertility was improved through preservation and restoration of soil nutrients, particularly nitrogen. Initially, ‘rest’ periods under fallow allowed soils to recuperate. Marling improved soil structure and pH balance, promoting regeneration of soil nitrogen and rendering soils suitable for ‘fussier’ crops.

Changes in landholding and tenures, enclosure, and engrossing resulted in larger, capital-rich farms. The larger scale farmer was able to adopt innovations and to focus on efficiency, labor management, and profit. Convertible husbandry, combining arable, ‘ley fields,’ and increased livestock (aided by enclosure) improved the ‘recycling’ of nitrogen and increased productivity. Floating of meadows provided early fodder for increasing numbers of livestock. Stall feeding of livestock on fodder, and folding livestock overnight on arable fields, improved the distribution of manure. Ultimately, variations on the Norfolk four-course crop rotations exploited leguminous and root-fodder crops to reduce or eliminate fallow. The sophisticated rotations, coupled with more advanced breeds of livestock, preserved soil fertility, produced greater yields of animal products, and increased the portion of acreage under tillage.

Widening markets, improved transportation, and greater awareness of the optimum use of regional soils led to regional agricultural specialization. Although increasing acreage was devoted to profitable non-edible crops, new food crops were introduced, and more productive food-crops were grown in optimized proportions. Each advance increased product per acre per year – allowing population to expand, and supporting the industrial revolution by fueling the factories with manpower.

Improvements in agricultural education aided more efficient farm and labor management. Agricultural manpower was supplemented by an increase in draught horses, by improved tools (including the seed drill and horse hoe), and by the eventual replacement of draught animals by machinery. The introduction of disease-resistant hybrids, chemical fertilizers (superphoshates were developed first,) fungicides, and pesticides allowed further increases in productivity.

Modern geographers are concerned with the impact of man upon the environment, and with the changing utilization of the land. The tile-drainage system that greatly improved agricultural productivity is hidden, but essential. Planned tree-farming has reversed a little of the massive deforestation wrought upon Britain both for clearance of land for agriculture, and to supply prime timber for shipbuilding. For the ships that made Britain a rich and powerful colonial nation by the turn of the twentieth century – a position usurped by one of Britain’s former colonies.

A recent concern of geographers in Britain has been the removal of hedgerows, fences, and walls – destroying the quaint patchwork-quilt landscape – the same ‘enclosed’ landscape that had aroused such opposition in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In order to permit movement of large farm machines, farmers are opening up their fields – by no means a full return to the medieval open-field system, but a step away from the picturesque ‘Oh-so-British’ scenery.

Farming Systems and Landholding.
The rhythm and grind of agriculture.
Regional agriculture and prevalent obstacles to food production.
Enclosure and Engrossing.
Markets.
The ingredients of agricultural revolution.

Land Use in Britain – Overview.

Land Use in Britain – Stone Age to Iron Age.

Land Use in Britain – Romans and Vikings.

Land Use in Britain – Normans bring Feudalism.

Land Use in Britain (full version) – The Agricultural Revolution.

Land Use in Britain – Bibliography.

Apis - Bee evolution, distribution ⇝

Playlists BBC Farm Series.

Thames - River Thames

Liquid History and HMS Belfast > .

Pages

Pottery - Cooking

History of Science posts