Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- 2 Energy, population, and environmental change since 1750: entering the Anthropocene
- 3 The economic history of agriculture since 1800
- 4 Global industrialization: a multipolar perspective
- 5 The history of world technology, 1750–present
- 6 A new world of energy
- Part II Population and disease
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
3 - The economic history of agriculture since 1800
from Part I - Material matrices
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- 2 Energy, population, and environmental change since 1750: entering the Anthropocene
- 3 The economic history of agriculture since 1800
- 4 Global industrialization: a multipolar perspective
- 5 The history of world technology, 1750–present
- 6 A new world of energy
- Part II Population and disease
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
Summary
In the last two centuries, world agriculture succeeded in producing enough to provide more food per capita than ever before, in spite of an almost seven-fold increase in population, and to supply industries with raw materials, all using less land, capital, and labor per unit of output. Production can be augmented by using more inputs such as capital, labor, and land, and/or by using them more efficiently. This chapter highlights a key distinction between the number of agricultural workers and their share of the total workforce. The farmers have introduced thousands of innovations, which for the purpose of illustration can be grouped into four categories. They are new practices of cultivation, new plants and animals, chemical products, and machinery. In the economists' jargon, institutions can be defined as the set of formal or informal rules that determine the ownership of the goods and factors and regulate the interactions among individual agents or households.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 83 - 105Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
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