Agriculture in Depression, 1870-1940

This study shows how British agriculture was affected by, and reacted to, international competition in an era of growing world food surpluses.

It deals with the social changes that took place at the time in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

After a period of comparative prosperity, British agriculture faced a number of problems from 1870.

Their prime cause was the increase in world food supplies and the competition from cheaper producers.

The fall in prices affected all groups of British farming in different ways.

Landowners were most severely affected by falling rents, and farmers by the serious decline in cereal prices.

Farmworkers benefited from cheaper food, but the inability of their employers to match urban wages speeded the drift of labour from the land towards the towns.

This resulted in profound changes to the British countryside and growing rural depopulation in some areas.