Second Agricultural Revolution

Second Agricultural Revolution
John Slezer · Public domain · source
Name	Second Agricultural Revolution
Caption	Advances in crop rotation and mechanization in the 18th and 19th centuries
Date	c. 17th–19th centuries
Place	Northwestern Europe, North America, parts of Asia
Outcome	Increased agricultural productivity, rural depopulation, foundation for industrialization

Second Agricultural Revolution The Second Agricultural Revolution was a prolonged transformation in agrarian practices that increased productivity and supported urbanization, industrialization, and demographic change. It involved innovations in crop management, animal husbandry, land consolidation, and mechanization that occurred across regions such as Great Britain, France, Kingdom of Prussia, United Provinces, and later United States. Key figures, institutions, and events influenced diffusion, including agricultural societies, landowners, and scientific proponents active during the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

Background and Origins

Precursors included methodological advances promoted by Bastille-era scientists and agronomists, along with enclosure movements in England and estate reforms under the Habsburg Monarchy and Tsardom of Russia. Influential proponents like Jethro Tull (agriculturist), Lord Charles Townshend, and Arthur Young (agricultural writer) disseminated practices through Society of Arts, Royal Society, and agricultural journals circulating in London, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam. Wars and treaties such as the Seven Years' War and the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle altered land tenure and market access, while institutions like the Bank of England and the East India Company affected capital flows and commodity markets.

Technological Innovations

Innovations combined mechanical inventions, selective breeding, and agronomic techniques. Mechanical progress included the seed drill of Jethro Tull (agriculturist), threshing machines refined by inventors associated with Industrial Revolution workshops, and later reapers influenced by the work of innovators in United States workshops and workshops around Manchester. Selective breeding programs were advanced by figures like Robert Bakewell and disseminated via correspondence among landed elites in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and estate networks in France and Prussia. Crop rotation systems adopted variations of the Norfolk four-course system promoted by Charles Townshend and showcased on estates managed by families like the Coke family of Holkham Hall. Agricultural colleges, model farms, and exhibitions run by the Royal Agricultural Society of England and the Great Exhibition in London helped standardize tools and practices.

Major Regional Developments

In Great Britain enclosures reshaped village landscapes from commons to consolidated holdings, driven by acts debated in the Parliament of Great Britain. In France post-French Revolution reforms, Napoleonic codes and land redistribution influenced peasant holdings in regions such as Brittany and Normandy. In Prussia agrarian reforms under statesmen like Frederick William III of Prussia and advisors influenced the emancipations and consolidation in Silesia and the Rhineland. In the United States innovations diffused through upriver trade networks along the Mississippi River and into states like Ohio and New York aided by canals such as the Erie Canal. In colonial contexts, plantation economies in Jamaica, Barbados, and São Tomé and Príncipe integrated technologies and breeding practices with global commodity circuits controlled by firms like the British East India Company and the Royal African Company.

Social and Economic Impacts

Productivity gains supported urban growth in industrial centers such as Manchester, Lyon, Leipzig, and New York City and reshaped labor flows by accelerating rural-to-urban migration documented in municipal records. Land consolidation favored landlords and capitalist farmers linked to banks like the Bank of England and investors in Dutch East India Company-style ventures. Smallholders in regions of Scandinavia and the Russian Empire faced varied outcomes depending on reforms such as the Emancipation reform of 1861 and local commune practices in Mir (Russia). Agricultural societies, cooperative movements, and extension efforts influenced peasant adoption rates; examples include initiatives by the Royal Agricultural Society of England and provincial agricultural colleges in Prussia and Massachusetts. Market integration connected hinterlands to metropolitan demand via ports like Liverpool, Marseille, and Rotterdam and via rail networks developed later under companies such as the Great Western Railway.

Environmental Consequences

Intensification altered soils, hydrology, and landscapes: drainage projects in the Fens and polder works in Holland changed wetlands and biodiversity. Monoculture expansion and fertilizer use—later including guano from sources like Peru and mineral phosphates mined in Belgium and Germany—shifted nutrient cycles. Deforestation for pasture and cropland affected regions such as Scotland and the Appalachian Mountains while land reclamation around Venice and reclamation schemes in Eastern England modified flood regimes. Responses included early conservation discourse among figures in the British Parliament and scientific debates in the Linnean Society and the French Academy of Sciences.

Transition to Industrial Agriculture

The Revolution laid institutional and technological foundations for capitalist agriculture and later industrial-scale farming driven by mechanization, chemical fertilizers, and breeding programs institutionalized in land-grant colleges like Iowa State University and research bodies such as the Institut National Agronomique and agricultural bureaus in the United States Department of Agriculture. Patent laws passed in parliaments and legislatures influenced mechanization diffusion, and exhibitions like the Great Exhibition accelerated technology transfer to manufacturers in Sheffield and Essen. This transition intertwined with global commodity chains, colonial markets administered by entities like the British Empire and Dutch Empire, and financial integration via institutions such as the London Stock Exchange, ultimately shaping 20th-century agribusiness and the rise of scientific agriculture.

Category:Agricultural history