Class 11/17

What important developments led to increased agricultural production?

• Crop rotation: farmers would use the three-field system
• Three-field system: farmers would split their land into 3, and at any given time, they would have 2 fields operating at one time. The field not in use was fallow, and the land was resting
• Different fields were used for different crops, which could remove or replenish nutrients in the soil 

What major change occurred because of new farming methods?

• Enclosure movement: its supporters believed that the new farming methods could not work with open fields. Instead, they advocated for building fences around each person's land.

• Peasants were upset by this change because they owned little to no land, which meant that they could not grow much food. 
• Prior to the enclosure movement, peasants would get additional food by gleaning
• Gleaning: peasants would collect crops on communal lands which they would eat or sell. Once the enclosure movement put an end to communal lands, peasants could no longer glean, and they lost food and income sources. 

What were the 3 important changes in this (time) period?

• Cottage industries and putting out system (Proto-industrialization)
• Cottage industry: business conducted in someone's home
• Putting Out System: outsourcing labor 
• Enclosure
• Agricultural revolution

What was up with the Low Countries and England?

• The Dutch had important agricultural technology, which meant that they held all the power 
• Irrigation was like the atomic bomb in that England was able to copy the Dutch and develop its own similar method of doing what the Dutch did

Jethro Tull's idea

• The ox is (potentially) getting to see his future with the meat that the man is processing

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