How Did The Open-Field System Influence The Development Of The English Industrial Revolution
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The era known as the Industrial Revolution was a period in which fundamental changes occurred in textile and metal industry, transportation, economic policies and the social structure of England. It took place during the late 18th century until early 19th century. England transitioned from predominantly agrarian and rural to industrial and urban. This was due to the workforce that resulted from the Agricultural Revolution. The Agricultural Revolution played a key role in the development of the English Industrial Revolution because its land availability, new farming techniques and scientific approaches increased the English food production which led to population growth. Land availability was a key factor in the transition from the Agricultural Revolution to the Industrial Revolution. The available farmland increased due to change in landholding patterns. The open-field system was predominant in England, but was replaced by the Enclosure Acts. The open-field system provided a village three or four large fields that would be divided into strips to be used by tenants. The fields would rotate crops each year except the third year in which the field was left uncultivated. This system was sufficient for a small population (Enclosure and the Agrarian Revolution). However, the system was problematic because it required part of the land to remain…show more content… A major contributor during the era was Jethro Tull whose invention of the seed drill revolutionized the initial planting stage in farming. He created the seed drill after observing two problems while farming which was the soil structure and nutrition as well as an inefficient method of planting seed. He set his mission to create a device to plant seeds the way he wanted. He designed a drill with a rotating cylinder that limited the wastage of seeding and made the crops easier to weed