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Farmers held a pivotal role in the capitalist agriculture that
emerged in England in the eighteenth century, yet they have
attracted little attention from rural historians. Farmers made
agriculture happen. They brought together the capital and the
technical and management skills which allowed food to be produced.
It was they - and not landowners - who employed and supervised
labour. They accepted the risk inherent in agriculture, paying
largely fixed rents out of fluctuating and uncertain incomes. They
are the rural equivalent of the small businessman with his own
firm, employing people and producing for markets, sometimes distant
ones. Our ignorance of the farmer might be justified by the claim
that they are ill-documented, but in fact farmers were normally
literate and kept records - day books, journals, accounts. This
volume goes some way to counter the claim that a history of the
farmer cannot be written by showing the range of materials
available and the diversity of approaches which can be employed to
study the activities and actions of individual farmers from the
sixteenth century onwards. Farm records offer invaluable insights
into the farming economy which are available nowhere else. In this
volume accounts are used in a variety of ways - as the means to
access single farms, but also in gross, as a national sample of
accounts, to reveal regional variation over time. For the later
nineteenth and twentieth centuries the range of sources available
increases enormously and farmers - indeed farmer's wives too -
emerge as articulate commentators on their own position, using
correspondence to outline their difficulties in the First World
War. Some even developed second careers as newspaper columnists and
journalists. This book focuses attention back on the farmer and, it
is hoped, will help to restore farmers to their rightful position
in history as rural entrepreneurs.
Farmers held a pivotal role in the capitalist agriculture that
emerged in England in the eighteenth century, yet they have
attracted little attention from rural historians. Farmers made
agriculture happen. They brought together the capital and the
technical and management skills which allowed food to be produced.
It was they - and not landowners - who employed and supervised
labour. They accepted the risk inherent in agriculture, paying
largely fixed rents out of fluctuating and uncertain incomes. They
are the rural equivalent of the small businessman with his own
firm, employing people and producing for markets, sometimes distant
ones. Our ignorance of the farmer might be justified by the claim
that they are ill-documented, but in fact farmers were normally
literate and kept records - day books, journals, accounts. This
volume goes some way to counter the claim that a history of the
farmer cannot be written by showing the range of materials
available and the diversity of approaches which can be employed to
study the activities and actions of individual farmers from the
sixteenth century onwards. Farm records offer invaluable insights
into the farming economy which are available nowhere else. In this
volume accounts are used in a variety of ways - as the means to
access single farms, but also in gross, as a national sample of
accounts, to reveal regional variation over time. For the later
nineteenth and twentieth centuries the range of sources available
increases enormously and farmers - indeed farmer's wives too -
emerge as articulate commentators on their own position, using
correspondence to outline their difficulties in the First World
War. Some even developed second careers as newspaper columnists and
journalists. This book focuses attention back on the farmer and, it
is hoped, will help to restore farmers to their rightful position
in history as rural entrepreneurs.
A great deal has been written about the acceleration of English
agriculture in the early modern period. In the late middle ages it
was hard to see that English agriculture was so very different from
that of the continent, but by 1750 levels of agricultural
productivity in Britain were well ahead of those general in
northern Europe. The country had become much more urban and the
proportion of the population engaged in agriculture had fallen.
Customary modes of behaviour, whilst often bitterly defended, had
largely been swept away. Contemporaries were quite clear that a
process of improvement had taken place which had seen agriculture
reshaped and made much more productive. Exactly what that process
was has remained surprisingly obscure. This volume addresses the
fundamental notion of improvement in the development of the British
landscape from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
Contributors present a variety of cases of how improvement, custom
and resistance impacted on the local landscape, which includes
manorial estates, enclosures, fens, forests and urban commons.
Disputes between tenants and landlords, and between neighbouring
landlords, over improvement meant that new economic and social
identities were forged in the battle between innovation and
tradition. The volume also includes an analysis of the role of
women as agricultural improvers and a case study of what can happen
when radical improvement failed. The volume will be essential
reading for scholars of landscape studies, rural and agrarian
history, but will also provide a useful context for anybody
studying the historical legacy of mankind's exploitation of the
environment and its social, economic, legal and political
consequences.
A great deal has been written about the acceleration of English
agriculture in the early modern period. In the late middle ages it
was hard to see that English agriculture was so very different from
that of the continent, but by 1750 levels of agricultural
productivity in Britain were well ahead of those general in
northern Europe. The country had become much more urban and the
proportion of the population engaged in agriculture had fallen.
Customary modes of behaviour, whilst often bitterly defended, had
largely been swept away. Contemporaries were quite clear that a
process of improvement had taken place which had seen agriculture
reshaped and made much more productive. Exactly what that process
was has remained surprisingly obscure. This volume addresses the
fundamental notion of improvement in the development of the British
landscape from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.
Contributors present a variety of cases of how improvement, custom
and resistance impacted on the local landscape, which includes
manorial estates, enclosures, fens, forests and urban commons.
Disputes between tenants and landlords, and between neighbouring
landlords, over improvement meant that new economic and social
identities were forged in the battle between innovation and
tradition. The volume also includes an analysis of the role of
women as agricultural improvers and a case study of what can happen
when radical improvement failed. The volume will be essential
reading for scholars of landscape studies, rural and agrarian
history, but will also provide a useful context for anybody
studying the historical legacy of mankind's exploitation of the
environment and its social, economic, legal and political
consequences.
Granular materials play an important role in many industries.
Continuous ingenuity and advancement in these industries
necessitates the ability to predict the fundamental behaviour of
granular materials under different working environments. With
contributions from international experts in the field Granular
Materials; Fundamentals and Applications details recent advances
made in theoretical computational and experimental approaches in
understanding the behaviour of granular materials including
industrial applications. Topics covered include: * key features of
granular plasticity * high temperature particle interactions *
influence of polymers on particulate dispersion stability: scanning
probe microscopy investigations * in-process measurement of
particulate systems Presented by world renowned researchers this
book will be welcomed by scientists and engineers working across a
wide spectrum of engineering disciplines.
The chemical industry processes a high proportion of its products
in powder form, thus making the efficient, effective and safe
handling and processing of powders of prime importance. Powders and
Solids: Developments in Handling and Processing Technologies brings
the reader right up-to-date with both newly-introduced commercial
practices and results of recent fundamental research on the
behaviour of model powders. Case studies are also included.
Commencing with an overview of developments in the health and
safety aspects of handling powders, the book then goes on to look
at the new technologies being applied to powders and powder
handling, followed by aspects of measurement and control in powder
handling. It will be essential reading for all industrial
practitioners, particularly those in the pharmaceutical industry,
as well as all engineers working either in industry or research on
processes involving solid and powder handling.
Producing large quantities of waste is not only environmentally
unacceptable, it is also not viable in economic terms. The chemical
industry, particularly the speciality and pharmaceuticals sectors,
is becoming increasingly aware of the advantages associated with
clean technology, particularly in terms of competitive advantage
and environmental benefits. Bringing together an understanding of
the concepts and values of clean technology by using case studies
from some leading European countries, this book provides an insight
into subjects such as catalysis; process intensification; and how
to measure the "green" value of a process. It also highlights the
role played by both the chemical and chemical engineering
disciplines in the development of cleaner processes. Clean
Technology for the Manufacture of Speciality Chemicals will prove
valuable reading for process development chemists and engineers,
particularly those in the specialities and pharmaceuticals sectors,
and will also be an important source of teaching material for the
growing number of clean technology chemistry courses.
The organization of society formed a crucial element in the
remarkable development of the countryside in the North Sea area in
the last 1500 years. Vital questions are: Who owned the land? Who
gained the profits from its exploitation? How was the use of rural
resources controlled and changed? These questions have no simple
answers, because the land has been subjected to competing claims,
varying from region to region. In early times peasants mostly
possessed and worked their holdings, but lords took much of the
produce, and had the ultimate control over the land. In more recent
times the occupiers and cultivatorsgained stronger rights over
their farms. Neither lords nor peasants were free agents because
communities governed the use of common lands. In the highly
urbanized North Sea region towns and townspeople had much and
increasing influence over the countryside. Change came from within
society, for example from the tension and negotiation between lords
and peasants, and the growing importance of the state and its
policies. The volume also looks at the interaction between society
and external changes, such as the rise and fall of the market,
trends in population, and European integration.
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