Firearms in a Fantasy World

Chapter 53: Agricultural Outlook

Translator: Cinder Translations

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After confirming the collaboration with Hansel, Paul Grayman began to consider the agricultural issues in his territory.

Firstly, regarding land ownership, nominally, all lands in Alden's domain belonged to the Grayman family, much like how in ancient times all lands in the Celestial Empire belonged to the emperor. However, practical terms for agricultural production are as follows:

v Nearly one-third of the arable land directly belonged to the Lord's Manor, and the output from these lands belonged entirely to the Grayman family.

v Just over one-third of the land was held by various village landlords and gentry (including retainers of the Grayman family) who paid taxes to the Lord's Manor annually, with the remainder of the output belonging to themselves.

v The weaker one-third of the land belonged to numerous small peasant farmers or small landowners.

According to the usual approach, the Earl should initiate a violent or gentle land redistribution reform, ensuring that every farmer in the domain has a piece of land sufficient to support themselves and their families, achieving the ideal of "those who work the land own the land," thereby earning widespread praise for the Lord's valor.

However, what Paul anticipated was not the idyllic pastoral life under a small-scale agricultural economy. He envisioned industrialized mass production, and the small-scale agricultural economy was a significant obstacle on the path to industrialization.

Firstly, the small-scale agricultural economy binds a large number of farmers to small plots of land, limiting the formation of a free labor force, which in turn restricts the pace of industrial development.

Secondly, the self-sufficiency and instability of the small-scale agricultural economy led to poverty among a large number of peasants, who lack the purchasing power to buy more consumer goods, thereby creating a narrow market and hindering the development of a commodity economy.

Furthermore, the weak economic strength of the small-scale agricultural economy makes it difficult to purchase expensive machinery or adopt other new technologies, undertake large-scale soil improvements, or engage in extensive irrigation projects, thereby hindering the increase in agricultural output.

Lastly, the long-term existence of small plots of land impedes the strengthening of agricultural specialization, restricts the expansion of cash crops, and delays the progress of agricultural commodification.

All these factors will hinder the development of industrialization. Leaving aside the negative impact of the small-scale agricultural economy in the recent history of the Celestial Empire, a comparison with the effects of the modern land systems in France and England sheds light on many issues.

After the bourgeois revolution in France, the destruction of the old feudal land relations and the redistribution of lands from the nobility and church to the peasants, turning them into small landowners, had profound progressive significance at the time, increasing the initiative of the peasants and promoting economic development.

However, due to various reasons, this small-scale private ownership of land-based small-scale agricultural economy persisted in France for more than a hundred years. The small-scale agricultural economy gradually became a hindrance to industrial development, delaying France's transformation from an agricultural to an industrial nation in the late 19th century, which was one of the important reasons for the relatively slow economic development in France during that period.

In contrast, England's experience was different. Although likened to the "sheep eat people" enclosure movement that ruined countless farmers and caused widespread tragedy with violence and oppression, objectively, it provided favorable conditions for England's Industrial Revolution.