Great Depression of British Agriculture facts for kids
The Great Depression of British Agriculture was a very difficult time for farming in Britain. It happened in the late 1800s, usually from 1873 to 1896. This period was part of a larger worldwide economic slowdown. The main reason for Britain's farming troubles was a huge drop in grain prices. This happened because new farms opened up in the American prairies in the 1870s. Also, steamships made it very cheap to transport grain across the ocean. British farming did not fully recover from this until after the Second World War. Other countries in Western Europe, like the Netherlands, also faced similar problems because of cheap grain from the United States and Canada.
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Why Farming Changed in Britain
In 1846, the British government changed some important laws called the Corn Laws. These laws had put a special tax, called a tariff, on grain brought in from other countries. This tax made imported grain more expensive. When the Corn Laws were removed, it meant Britain started to have free trade. This meant goods could come into the country without extra taxes.
Many people thought free trade would make prices drop right away. But this didn't happen for about 25 years. In fact, the years from 1853 to 1862 were known as the "golden age" for English farming. This good time happened because prices went up. Gold was discovered in Australia and California, which meant more money was available. Also, wars like the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the American Civil War (1861-1865) stopped grain from being sent from Russia and the United States. This protected Britain from the full effects of free trade for a while.
Britain also had several good harvests during this time. More land was used for farming, and people invested money in improving farms. Experts at the time believed that British farming methods were better than most in Europe. They had good animal breeds and scientific ways of growing crops.
What Caused the Farming Crisis
A big change happened in the United States. In 1862, the US government passed the Homestead Act. This law gave away large areas of land in the Midwest to settlers. At the same time, America built many new railways, especially across the prairies. In 1860, the US had about 30,800 miles of railways. By 1880, this had grown to about 94,200 miles! Railway companies even offered cheap transport to farmers to encourage them to grow crops.
New technology also played a huge role. For the first time, there were many cheap steamships that could carry crops across the oceans. This made transport costs fall a lot. For example, in 1873, it cost £3 to send a ton of grain from Chicago to Liverpool. By 1884, it cost only £1 and 4 shillings.
New farm machines helped American farmers too. Because there weren't many farm workers on the prairies, farmers needed ways to harvest crops by themselves. The invention of the reaper-binder in 1873 changed everything. This machine allowed one farmer to harvest twice as much crop as before.
Because of all these reasons, huge amounts of cheap American wheat could be sent to Britain. This flooded the market and made it impossible for British wheat farmers to compete. Their crops were simply too expensive compared to the imported grain.
Bad weather in Britain also made things worse. There were poor harvests in 1875, 1877, 1878, and especially a very wet summer in 1879. In the past, bad harvests meant farmers could sell their crops for high prices because food was scarce. But now, with cheap American imports, British farmers couldn't rely on high prices anymore.
How the Depression Affected Britain
Between 1871-75 and 1896-1900, Britain imported much more food. Wheat and flour imports went up by 90%. Meat imports increased by 300%, and butter and cheese by 110%. The price of wheat in Britain dropped from 56 shillings a quarter in 1867-71 to just 27 shillings and 3 pence in 1894-98. The lowest point was in 1894-95, when prices were the lowest in 150 years.
Before the depression, about 9.4 million acres of land were used for growing cereals. By 1898, this had fallen to about 7.4 million acres, a drop of 22%. At the same time, more land was used for grazing animals (permanent pasture) instead of growing crops. By 1900, the amount of land growing wheat was only a little more than half of what it was in 1872.
The depression also made many people leave the countryside. The 1881 census showed that 92,250 fewer people worked as farm labourers compared to 1871. Many of these people moved to cities to find jobs. Between 1871 and 1901, the population of England and Wales grew by 43%, but the number of male farm workers dropped by over a third.
Britain became very dependent on imported food. In the 1830s, only 2% of Britain's grain came from other countries. By the 1880s, this was 45%. By 1914, Britain relied on imports for four-fifths of its wheat and 40% of its meat.
Social Changes
The depression also changed who held the most wealth in Britain. Between 1809 and 1879, most British millionaires (88%) were landowners. But between 1880 and 1914, this number dropped to 33%. Before the depression, British landowners were the richest people in the world's richest country.
However, by the late 1800s, this changed. The new wealthy people were often American businessmen like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller, who made their money from factories and industry, not land. In Britain, manufacturers became richer than the old land-owning families. Wealth was no longer mainly in large estates and castles, but in businesses and investments.
How the Government Responded
The Prime Minister when the depression started was Benjamin Disraeli. He had once strongly supported the Corn Laws and believed farming would be ruined if they were removed. However, unlike most other European governments, his government did not bring back taxes on imported grain to help farmers. Even though landowners asked for the Corn Laws to be reintroduced, Disraeli said the issue was settled.
One reason for this was that city workers were enjoying cheap imported food. At the same time, factories were struggling, and unemployment was rising. Disraeli had given many working men the right to vote in 1867. He didn't want to make them angry by raising food prices.
Disraeli's government did set up a Royal Commission (a special committee) to study the farming depression. This committee said the depression was caused by bad harvests and competition from other countries. It suggested some changes, like how local taxes were collected and setting up a government department for agriculture.
Later, the government led by William Ewart Gladstone (from the Liberal Party) didn't do much. But Lord Salisbury's government created the Board of Agriculture in 1889.
After some dry years in the early 1890s, Gladstone's government set up another Royal Commission in 1894. This committee found that foreign competition was the main reason for falling prices. It suggested changes to land ownership rules, education, and other smaller things.
