L economic development of Europe in the XVIII century. Lecture The development of industry

Agriculture. In the XVIII century Europe was still largely an agrarian continent. The development of 
agriculture, increasing its efficiency, as before, was a necessary condition for the existence and normal 
functioning of society. 
Even in the most industrially developed countries, the majority of the population was employed in 
agriculture. In England at the beginning of the XVIII century. - 75 percent of the population was 
employed in agriculture, in France - 80-85 percent, in Finland - 81 percent. The type of agrarian 

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development in different regions of Europe was not the same. The reason for the very significant regional 
peculiarities in the development of the agrarian life of Western Europe during the period of manufactory 
production was primarily the difference in the ways of the evolution of land ownership forms. In the 
classical form, the transition to a new type of estate characteristic of capitalist production was made only 
in England, where a threefold division of the rural society was observed: the hired worker — the capitalist 
tenant — landlord. The basis of this process is the expropriation of the peasantry, parliamentary fencing 
of the end of the XVIII century. 
The English version of the capitalist agrarian evolution was replicated in French Flanders and Northeast 
Normandy. 
However, in most parts of Europe in the XVIII century. small-scale peasant land tenure dominated, with 
its characteristic formation of capitalist elements from inter-peasant relations as a result of the socio-
economic differentiation of agricultural producers. The differences were to a greater or lesser degree of 
economic independence of such farms. Thus, the most stable market relations of small-scale peasant 
farming were typical of Flanders and the Northern Netherlands. In Southern France, Southern Italy, 
Northern Spain, North-West Germany, and some other areas, the peasants had less economic autonomy 
and mobility. 
Different regions of Europe differed significantly in the type of historically established agricultural 
specialization. The main countries for the production of grain were Poland, Prussia, Russia, Northern 
France, the Netherlands. The centers of winemaking were France, Spain, Italy. 
Livestock, trade in livestock, wool and dairy products were especially characteristic of the Netherlands, 
Sweden and England. 
For most countries of Western Europe, the eighteenth century was a century of qualitatively new 
phenomena in agriculture. The Norfolk six-field crop rotation system was especially famous: the field 
was divided into 19–20 plots, six plots were used, combined in a known sequence with almost no steam. 
Combined sowing reduced the risk of an insufficiently high yield in cold springs. 
In the XVIII century. buckwheat, maize, potatoes and flax were introduced into the practice of continental 
and island Europe. During this period, certain progress was also achieved in the invention and 
introduction of new agricultural equipment (a light Brabant plow, a Flemish harrow, a sickle replaced 
with a scythe). Other technical innovations were applied. 
As a result of the technical revolution as one of the manifestations of the agrarian revolution, manual 
labor in agricultural production was largely replaced by machine labor. But here, too, cars were first 
introduced in England, then in France and in Germany. 
Capitalist restructuring in the agrarian sphere of Europe in the eighteenth century. it was not 
straightforward; in many countries feudal methods of farming were maintained. 
A feature of countries such as Italy and France, was the existence of part-cropping - short-term peasant 
rent with a predominance of in-kind payments, although in general for Europe in the 18th century. there 
were characteristic changes in the lease structure: an increase in the role of capitalist rent, a much greater 
involvement of hired labor; increase in the rate of operation of small tenants due to both the direct growth 
of rental payments and changes in their structure and form.