Revolución en los campos: La reinterpretación de la Revolución Agrícola inglesa

Abstract

Our understanding of the open fields and enclosures has been revolutionised in recent decades. A wide range of research has shown that yeomen farmers and small holders peasants were capable of innovation, and the open fields witnessed most of the output and productivity growth achieved by English agriculture from the Middle Ages to around 1750. Parliamentary enclosures increased landlord and gentry income, but often failed to produce much extra output or release much labour from 1750 onwards. The first steps of the new understanding arose from statistical comparisons and regression analysis rather than from the documentary data used to support the standard approach. But the case for the progressiveness of the open fields can also be built in traditional sources.