2 - European Agriculture in an Age of Economic Instability

Summary

The half century prior to the First World War saw unprecedented social changes in the countryside across Europe. In particular, the economic position of the landed elites was endangered by the import of cheap food, and their political authority and social influence threatened by urban demands to extend the suffrage and the appearance of more efficient factor and commodity markets that eroded the benefits from traditional patron–client networks. Industrialization and the greater integration of the Atlantic economy after 1870 produced a downward pressure on European land prices and rents, but increased real wages. As the landed elite become less influential, the family farm grew in importance, although by the interwar years significant differences existed between the self-sufficient ‘independent’ family farmers found in Northern Europe and the poor ‘peasant’ farmers of Eastern and Southern Europe. Government attitudes towards the sector also changed, especially with the First World War, which had important consequences for both demands for state intervention and governments’ capacity to respond during the Great Depression.