Introduction

For years, historians believed and teachers taught that the Agricultural Revolution preceded and stimulated the Industrial Revolution.  Here, for instance is what Peter Moss said in his History Alive 2 textbook in 1970:

Perhaps the most important events which took place in Britain in the eighteenth century were the sweeping changes in farming which we now call the Agricultural Revolution.

If these had not happened it is probable that the great Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, which made Britain the most powerful country in the world for more than a hundred years, would have been delayed for a very long time. 

Your evaluation of the importance of the Agricultural Revolution in causing the Industrial Revolution will depend to a large extent on how much of an 'Agricultural Revolution' you think there was.  If you think that agricultural hardly changed, and that output failed to keep up with the growing population, you might decide that it was not very significant at all!
 
However, most history textbooks accept that developments in agriculture played a part in the Industrial Revolution, and they suggest that the following developments were significant:

1. More and better quality food

2. Lower food prices

3. Rural workers not needed in agriculture went to work in industry

For each of these developments, think how it might have helped stimulate the growth of industry.

After you have studied this webpage, answer the question sheet by clicking on the 'Time to Work' icon at the top of the page.

Links:

The following websites will help you research further:

The Agricultural Revolution:

• A video – still traditional, but taking a wider view, and touching on the consequences

1  PJ Larkin, English History for Certificate Classes, 1964

(i)  The Agricultural Revolution solved the national food problem and made land and labour available for industry.

(ii)  New farming methods led to an increase of 'enclosed' farms which produced food for the town market.  Intensive farming produced more food from the land; therefore spare land was available for industrial build-up.

(iii) The growth of population, especially in the later eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, provided labour for the factories.  Labour became more mobile and there was considerable movement of population to the growing urban areas.

2  Comment on the History Crunch website, 2015

The Agricultural Revolution was an important cause of the Industrial Revolution.

The Agricultural Revolution took place in Britain in the 1700s and involved inventions and innovations that led to an increase in food production.  This allowed Britain’s population to also increase which benefitted the Industrial Revolution in two ways.

• First, the increased population helped produce workers for the factories and mines that were so important to the Industrial Revolution.

• Second, the larger population created a market for the goods they sold which helped the owners of the factories to make a profit. 

3  Comment on the History of Western Civilization website, 2016

• The Agricultural Revolution in Britain proved to be a major turning point, allowing population to far exceed earlier peaks and sustain the country’s rise to industrial pre-eminence.

• The rise in productivity accelerated the decline of the agricultural share of the labor force, adding to the urban workforce on which industrialization depended.  The Agricultural Revolution has therefore been cited as a cause of the Industrial Revolution.

• The most important development was the development of private marketing.  By the 19th century, marketing was nationwide and the vast majority of agricultural production was for market rather than for the farmer and his family.  The next stage of development was trading between markets, requiring merchants, credit and forward sales, and knowledge of markets and pricing as well as of supply and demand in different markets.  Eventually the market evolved into a national one driven by London and other growing cities.  Commerce was aided by the expansion of roads and inland waterways.  

4  Phyllis Deane, The First Industrial Revolution, 1965

The role which agriculture plays in a pre-industrial economy must be important.  
A general rise in agricultural incomes represents a rise in incomes for the majority of the population; technological change in agriculture affects the majority of producers; a fall in agricultural prices tends to lower the cost of raw materials for the rest of the economy and of foodstuffs for wage-earners generally.
 
[Thus] the agricultural revolution in Engand can be said to have contributed to the effectiveness of the first industrial revolution in three ways:

(1) by feeding the growing populations and particularly the population of the industrial centres,
 
(2) by increasing buying power for the products of British industry,
 
(3) by providing a substantial part of the capital required to finance industrialisation.

Moreover the agricultural industry carried much of the burden of the State.  The land-tax was the basis of government revenue throughout the 18th century.  

5  Robert Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, 2009

In the standard story, the agricultural revolution increased output and reduced farm employment.  This made it possible to feed a larger urban population and so helped the growth of manufacturing.  Change in the countryside caused the growth of the city and propelled the economy forward.

There is some truth in the standard narrative, but causation ran more strongly in the opposite direction.  London and the industrial areas were the engines of growth.  Their expansion raised wage rates and drew labour out of agriculture.  Farmers either sold out and moved to the city or improved their methods and raised their yields in order to keep up with high urban incomes and participate in the consumer revolution.  The result was a substantial rise in farm output and an increase in labour productivity.

The agricultural revolution was the result of the growth of cities and manufacturing, [not the cause].