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PB's avatar

I remember reading a book that argued that agriculture in England was substantially more productive than in other places in Europe, leading to a large proportion of residents living in cities. (I think the author was named something like Ellen Meiksins Woods?) The argument was that England had a much more extensive market for agricultural land, leading to people who rented farm land to focus on raising yields and profits and for successful farmers to bid up the price of land. Was England unusually urbanized and did it have an unusual agricultural surplus?

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Peter Redward's avatar

Nice post. I'd add one other factor, literacy. The UK has a very long history of people being able to both read and write. This gave individuals without formal education the possibility to learn, about their business, about their rights, contracts. It helped level the playing field with the Church and State and the Landed Gentry. It also allowed much more complex economic interactions, with contracts for leasing of land, sub-letting, contract farming and harvesting etc. Literacy is absolutely essential.

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