A History of Agriculture in India v2.c56.1

v2.c56.1

Here it would be pertinent to examine the agrarian conditions and the state of agriculture in Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by way of comparison. Carlton Hayes states : ‘The twelfth and thirteenth centuries constituted a period of significant agrarian as well as commercial development in Europe. Much of the change was a natural expansion of agriculture resulting from an increase in population. But the growth of trade and urban life also radically affected the economy of the rural manor. Since much of the surplus population was drawn to the towns and since towns depended on food brought from the outside, a heightened agricultural production was necessitated. And the provisioning of towns opened up the possibility of farming for profit, rather than merely for local manorial consumption. Thus the clearing of new agricultural land from the forest, which had commenced in the early middle ages, reached its climax in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Afterwards, for several centuries, there was not much further addition to cultivated land in central or western Europe. A great deal of the new farming of the high middle age was done in districts opened up along the frontiers, but much was also done within the older regions, where there was forest land to be cleared. Technological improvements furthered agricultural progress. The wheelbarrow, which came into use in the thirteenth century, was helpful; and the appearance of windmills in the same period was of marked utility, especially in areas where natural waterflow was sluggish.