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English Agrarian Labor Productivity Rates Before the Black Death: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2004

EONA KARAKACILI
EONA KARAKACILI
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Social Science, Social Science Centre, Room 4328, London, Ontario, Canada N6A5C2. E-mail: Eona@uwo.ca
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Abstract

It is often suggested that an agricultural revolution, currently defined as a rise in the output of arable workers, was a necessary precursor to industrialization and improved living standards. This article provides the first direct measurement of arable workers' average labor productivity for pre-industrial England. Rates are assessed for those production conditions that it is thought resulted in the lowest agrarian labor productivity rates in the pre-industrial period: c.1300–1348. The rates for English workers before the Black Death either surpassed or met the literature's best estimates for English workers until 1800, well after industrialization was underway.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 24 - 60
Copyright
© 2004 The Economic History Association

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