UK Countryside history - 1600 AD
By 1600 AD the economy remained essentially agrarian with the majority of the population still engaged in subsistence agriculture, however recent population growth had created pressure in the countryside with food shortages and a migration to the towns had occurred. As agriculture now occupied nearly all utilisable land, efforts were directed to improving yields through enclosure and enhanced fertility.
- Population
In 1520 the population of the UK was still barely 3.5 million, a figure
comparable to the end of the black death two centuries earlier. However
by 1600 the population of the UK had grown to around 6 million and although
it continued to grow reaching nearly 8 million by 1650, it then leveled
off and declined slightly. The reasons for the decline are not clear although
it is thought that the custom of late marriage and crude birth control reduced
overall fertility. Nonetheless the consequences of such significant overall
population growth were serious with periodic bouts of famine and food price
inflation a result.
- Crops
Wheat, barley, oats and rye. Peas, beans and vetches were grown in rotation
to enhance fertility and provide stock feed and other crops like flax were
important.
- Livestock
The sheep industry continued to remain the key livestock industry being
essential for maintaining the fertility of the arable area and supplying
wool for the cloth industry. Woolen cloth exported via London to North Europe
remained the country's most important manufactured output. However for the
majority of the population that continued to live in small cottages with
a plot of land, pigs, goats and fowl of various kinds were all kept.
- Farming Systems
With an increased demand for food agriculture responded and an increased
area was brought under the plough. Some woodland was again cleared, the
fens were drained and marginal upland areas improved and cultivated. Improvements
in output were also sought through enclosure and amalgamation of fields
and through the use of additional manure (largely supplied by sheep which
could be more easily managed in the enclosed fields). Improvements to the
rotation also assisted in fertility - arable blocks would be periodically
reverted to pasture and manure from the grazing stock enhanced fertility.
However, there was a limit to the fertility that could be returned unless
livestock numbers were greatly increased and this had not been possible
because of the lack of winter fodder (a factor that the more advanced Low
Countries had attempted to solve through the use of fodder crops and clover).
- Woodland & Hedges
Through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rising demand for firewood
and charcoal (consumed in large quantities by the blast furnaces) placed
increasing pressure on woodland supplies although with a strong economic
rationale for woodland's existence, the area remained broadly stable at
around 10%. The total length of hedgerow continued to grow as more fields
were enclosed.
- Social Economy
The rise in the population from about 1500 onwards led to food price inflation
way above the rise in wages which impoverished the growing workforce who
were increasingly dependant upon paid labour. A major decline in living
standards ensued and coupled with high structural unemployment a significant
part of the population survived through state aid and scavenging for wild
fruit and vegetables. With population migration to the towns and a fair
degree of social unrest the State found itself both distrusted and ill equipped
to deal with the social consequences of population growth and inadequate
food.
- Climate
Colder than today in a period known as the mini ice age which lasted from
1550 - 1850.
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