Agricultural Transformation in a Global History Perspective

History teaches us that the agricultural transformation process is a necessary step towards better living conditions in all societies. A rising productivity in agriculture allows for increasing incomes within agriculture simultaneously as more resources can be devoted to other sectors. Within the field of economic history one of the overriding debates during the last decade has been whether long term economic change is primarily driven by institutional change or changes in factor endowments. This book uses a global history approach in order to better understand the agricultural transformation process, using a wide number of comparisons over time and space. While the study of the agricultural transformation has a long tradition, it has seldom been combined with the global history approach on a larger scale. The book seeks to identify key factors for agricultural transformation, through the use of micro level case studies, and to assess their importance in a global perspective. The book not only assesses whether factors limiting or allowing agricultural change in historical Europe are still at relevant today, but also explains how contemporary examples and studies will lead us further in our analysis of history.