Energy availability from livestock and agricultural productivity in Europe, 1815-1913: a new comparison
(2011) In Economic History Review 64(1). p.1-29- Abstract
- This article explores the proposition that a reason for high agricultural productivity in the early nineteenth century was relatively high energy availability from draught animals. The article is based on the collection of extensive new data indicating different trends in draught power availability and the efficiency of its use in different
countries of Europe. This article shows that the proposition does not hold, and demonstrates that, although towards the end of the nineteenth century England had relatively high numbers of draught animals per agricultural worker, it also had low number of workers and animals per hectare, indicating the high efficiency of muscle power, rather than an abundance of such power.The higher efficiency... (More) - This article explores the proposition that a reason for high agricultural productivity in the early nineteenth century was relatively high energy availability from draught animals. The article is based on the collection of extensive new data indicating different trends in draught power availability and the efficiency of its use in different
countries of Europe. This article shows that the proposition does not hold, and demonstrates that, although towards the end of the nineteenth century England had relatively high numbers of draught animals per agricultural worker, it also had low number of workers and animals per hectare, indicating the high efficiency of muscle power, rather than an abundance of such power.The higher efficiency was related to a specialization on less labour-intensive farming and a preference for horses over
oxen. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1729183
- author
- Kander, Astrid LU and Warde, Paul
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- draught animals, horses, oxen, land productivity, England, labour productivity, energy
- in
- Economic History Review
- volume
- 64
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 1 - 29
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000285879800001
- scopus:78650799813
- ISSN
- 1468-0289
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00526.x
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- f2ed8431-6a04-4993-afc2-0c9423e1ef87 (old id 1729183)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:34:00
- date last changed
- 2022-03-21 19:14:01
@article{f2ed8431-6a04-4993-afc2-0c9423e1ef87,
abstract = {{This article explores the proposition that a reason for high agricultural productivity in the early nineteenth century was relatively high energy availability from draught animals. The article is based on the collection of extensive new data indicating different trends in draught power availability and the efficiency of its use in different<br/><br>
countries of Europe. This article shows that the proposition does not hold, and demonstrates that, although towards the end of the nineteenth century England had relatively high numbers of draught animals per agricultural worker, it also had low number of workers and animals per hectare, indicating the high efficiency of muscle power, rather than an abundance of such power.The higher efficiency was related to a specialization on less labour-intensive farming and a preference for horses over<br/><br>
oxen.}},
author = {{Kander, Astrid and Warde, Paul}},
issn = {{1468-0289}},
keywords = {{draught animals; horses; oxen; land productivity; England; labour productivity; energy}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{1--29}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Economic History Review}},
title = {{Energy availability from livestock and agricultural productivity in Europe, 1815-1913: a new comparison}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00526.x}},
doi = {{10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00526.x}},
volume = {{64}},
year = {{2011}},
}