Too much revolution: Agriculture in the industrial revolution, 1700-1860

The idea that an agricultural revolution accompanied the Industrial Revolution, and indeed contributed more to the overall productivity growth of the British economy in the years 1700 to 1850 than did the revolutionary changes in cotton textiles, still dominates thinking about the Industrial Revolution period. 1 Table 4.1 shows, for example, some recent estimates of productivity growth in English agriculture between 1700 and 1850. The authors vary in where exactly they place the productivity growth, but all find productivity more than doubled between 1700 and 1850, just at the time of the Industrial Revolution.