Far more than any other industry, British agriculture was tied to the staggering growth of population between 1701 and 1850. This population, increasingly industrial and urban, relied for nearly all its food and much of its raw materials on the growth potential of home agriculture. The vital change from earlier systems to the scientific mass-production of food for the workshop of the world constituted the Agricultural Revolution. Until the coming of the railways, more capital was invested in land than in the whole of industry and trade. An agricultural revolution had kept pace with an industrial revolution had kept pace with an industrial revolution. But it was a very different kind of revolution, involving the application of agricultural practices that had slowly crept in over the centuries. A few enterprising men had learned to unlock the secrets of the soil, and this knowledge was available to meet the challenge of the new born modern age. This book shows that output was initially expanded without large scale mechanization or scientific influence. An agricultural system gradually built up came to maturity with new rotations, improved fertility, heavier stocking, mixed grain and animal husbandry, and the movement towards an optimum size of farm. Mechanization and science did not help the farmer until well into the 19th century, when demand finally outstripped home production and free trade called in overseas produce. New material is used in the discussion of the social and economic effects of reorganization and expansion. The significance of enclosure and the Repeal of the Corn Laws are reconsidered; and price movements, rents, agricultural wages, and labour conditions are searchinlgy reassessed in this book.