ABSTRACT
In the early nineteenth century agriculture remained by far the largest single source of employment in the country, contributing far more than any other single industry to total output, and was still expanding — indeed had just experienced a generation of hectic expansion under the stimulus of high war-time food prices. Only in relation to the other sectors of the economy was the share of agriculture diminishing: its decline was solely in relative terms to the mid-nineteenth century. In 1801 about a third of the national income derived directly from agriculture, which employed about 36 per cent of the labour force. By 1851 these proportions had shrunk to 20 per cent; and by 1901 to 6–7 per cent — a relative decline far greater than that experienced by any other industrializing country. The labour force continued to expand until 1861 with 312,000 farmers and 1,362,000 labourers working on farms. Then came the long attrition, this time in absolute terms, with the numbers of farmers in Great Britain down to 280,000 and workers on farms down to 879,000 by 1911— a decline of almost half a million people. This huge redeployment of resources was accompanied by some attrition in real incomes, compared with those receiving wages and profits in other main sectors, with the agricultural labourers still the poorest paid adult males of any large sector of the labour force (although great differences existed between agricultural wages in industrial districts of the midlands and north and those of the south and west). The efficiency of British farms increased through these decades of adversity with productivity rising, as labour flowed away from the land and technology (with capital inputs) advanced. British agriculture experienced greater changes, because of the growing commitment of the country to the international economy, than the agriculture of any other European country. This chapter should thus be read in conjunction with the sections of the book which consider the growth of international trade, changes in the balance of payments and the growing commitment of our industrial fortunes to success in foreign markets. Britain became the largest international market for foodstuffs in the world during the nineteenth century; and British agriculture had to live with the consequences of this, without benefit of tariffs.
