A Study On The Great Agricultural Depression And Its Effects Of Britain In The Late 19th Century

British agriculture was booming in the middle of the 19 th century,entered the period of "High Farming",which is mainly manifested by high agricultural product prices,high agricultural investment and high agricultural production efficiency.But after the 1870 s,British agriculture was badly hit and plunged into a long depression known as “the Great Agricultural Depression”.There are many reasons for the emergence of the Great Agricultural Depression of Britain and its impact on Britain is also very widespread and far-reaching.This paper aims to make a comprehensive analysis of the background,causes,performance and impact of the Great Agricultural Depression of Britain by interpreting relevant literature,and trying to get a more complete picture of the Great Agricultural Depression of Britain and its relevance to British relative decline.The first chapter of this paper mainly discusses the background of the Great Agricultural Depression of Britain.It can be seen that before the Great Agricultural Depression,because of its strong industrial production capacity,the Britain fully implemented the Free Trade Policy;because of its prosperity of "High Farming" and the control of political power by the Landed Aristocracy,the large Tenant Farm were widespread.However,with the advent of the Great Agricultural Depression,these features became a catalyst for deepening the depression.The second chapter mainly discusses the causes and manifestations of the Great Agricultural Depression of Britain.The persistence of severe weather conditions and the impact of a flood of cheap agricultural products from overseas were the external causes of the Great Depression,the high cost of producing of the British large Tenant Farms and the British government’s lack of timely tariff protection were the internal causes of the Great Depression.The collapse of agricultural price,the sharp drop of agricultural profits,a mass bankruptcy of farms and the decline of land value and so on were direct manifestations of the Great Depression,the sharp drop of the domestic grain acreage,the surge of imports of agricultural products,the loss of agricultural labor and the decline of agricultural position in the British economy were the direct results of the Great Depression.The third chapter mainly analyzes the widespread and far-reaching impact of the Agricultural Depression caused on Britain.It not only changed the structure and the mode of operation of British agriculture,accelerated the decline of the British landed aristocracy,also strengthened the British government to the economic and social intervention,it also indirectly increased the external dependence of the British economy to some extent,and accelerated the loss of Britain’s industrial monopoly and the decline of its overall national strength.The Great Agricultural Depression of Britain in the 1870 s was a change in the agricultural field caused by many factors.But the impact of this change was not limited to the agricultural field,British political and international field have been affected to varying degrees,the changes brought about by these impacts on Britain also played an important role in the subsequent social development.