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home | 18-19th Centuries Index
CLASS AND ECONOMY IN EUROPE (1 of 6)
In 1880, 70.7 percent of Europeans, excluding Russians, lived in rural areas. Twenty years later this was 62.1 percent. Farm production was rising while more people were moving to urban areas. The increase in the production of food was allowing the growth in urban areas. Agricultural production was making food cheaper and adding to the industrial revolution by increasing the ability of people to buy manufactured products.
Between 1870 and 1900 a decline in transport costs helped create a rapid expansion of global trade and economic growth. The standard of living rose between 17 and 25 percent in Britain and grew at a comparable rate in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and the standard of living increased also in southern Europe -- according to the economic historian Theodore S. Hamerow in his book, Birth of a New Europe. [note] The higher standard of living for hired workers was measured in real income -- what their wages bought from year to year. Using figures from a Marxist scholar, Jurgen Kuczynski, who was not likely to minimize the sufferings of labor, Hamerow has described real wages in Britain as rising about 60 percent from 1816 to 1900, and climbing almost as steeply in France and Germany between 1860 and 1900. Europe's economies were advancing technologically, and workers in agriculture were more productive. Productivity in Austria rose 45 percent between 1840 and 1900, 50 percent in Belgium, 35 percent in France, 190 percent in Germany, 50 percent in Itay, 30 percent in Russia, 75 percent in Sweden, 90 percent in Switzerland, and an average of 75 percent from all of Europe. [note] Common people could more easily afford new clothing, but it was agriculture that did much to improve standards of living. Food prices declined. Diets improved. And people had more money to spend on manufactured goods, which boosted manufacturing.
As always, however, growth was uneven. Germany was growing faster economically than France, and the U.S. was growing faster than Britain. Between 1870 and 1913, Britain's share of the world's industrial production dropped from 32 percent to 9 percent. The U.S. share in this same period rose from 23 to 42 percent. (W.W. Rostow. The World Economy, pages 22-23, appearing in The History of Capitalism, by Michael Beaud, p. 143.)
Use of chemicals in farming increased productivity, as did mechanization, which worked best on larger tracts of lands. Before the end of the century the United States had become a leader in mechanization. And it became the leader in the export of farm tools such as mowers and reapers. Nations were increasing their production of wheat. Around 1850 world production of wheat was 3.1 metric tons. Around 1870 this rose to 62 million. Around 1910 it would be 102.9 million. [note]
Farm animals were increasing in number. The number of cattle in the Netherlands increased from 1,252,000 in 1860 to 2,027,000 in 1910. The number of pigs in Denmark rose from 442,000 in 1870 to 11,841,000 in 1910. The number of sheep in Italy rose from 6,975,000 in 1870 to 11,841,000 in 1910. [note]
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