The country's economy should be a combination of small-scale peasant economy, handicraft industry, and initial machinery industry.

According to the settings in the book above, a household is granted 50 acres of land, and based on the average grain yield per mu of 120 kilograms, the production of grain is 6,000 kilograms. Based on a person's annual grain consumption of 250 kilograms, this agricultural family can feed 24 people.

That is, one agricultural family can support about 4.8 families. Since Xia State implements both agriculture and animal husbandry and a fallow system, and does not advocate excessive reclamation, this number can be converted into a small amount, and one agricultural family can support 2.4 families.

However, Xia's agriculture is not just about planting grains, mulberries, and mulberry. Instead, it vigorously develops agriculture and animal husbandry and implements a field-grass rotation system. (Reference: Planting 1 acre of ryegrass can provide enough grass within 6 months.

8-10 sheep provide fodder.) Under the coordination of the sergeant, the farmers cooperate, and the merchants provide various advanced technologies. The farmers will even join forces to hire helpers, or rent the land to the merchants for management.

refer to:

Enclosure as a historical phenomenon began as early as the 12th century and developed slowly from the 13th to the 15th century. However, enclosure as a movement did not occur until the end of the 15th century. Since the opening of new sea routes

Later, the European trade center shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, which promoted the development of British industry and commerce. The use and export of wool has been the main industry in Britain since ancient times. Since the 15th century, the wool textile industry has developed rapidly. From wool-exporting countries

It became a wool exporting country, and wool was sold all over Europe. Due to the prosperity of the wool textile industry, sheep raising became a very profitable business at that time, which led to the rise of the enclosure movement. This movement was by no means limited to Britain, it had spread to other countries

to many regions including continental Europe and North America.

Therefore, the essence of the enclosure movement was a profound anti-feudal revolution and a technological revolution in agriculture and animal husbandry.

1. Development of farming system

In the early days, the improvement of land utilization was mainly achieved by changing the farming system. The change in the western farming system was mainly reflected in the emergence of grass agriculture. Before sheep were enclosed, most of the cultivated land still followed the ancient winter grain.

Spring valley and fallow crop rotation method. Livestock graze on abandoned grasslands, edges of woodlands, fallow land, or on land with stubble after harvest. There is little feed for the winter. The development of livestock is limited, and the amount required by crops is

Fertilizer mainly comes from livestock manure. Therefore, the lack of feed affects the lack of fertilizer, which ultimately affects crop yields.

Therefore, although the enclosure movement emerged due to the expansion of the wool market, not all enclosures were used to raise sheep. For some experienced farmers, they knew better the benefits of cereal planting and animal husbandry, especially in the tenth century.

After the mid-sixth century, with the development of urban industry and the resulting growth of urban population, the demand for bread, meat and other foods increased. This forced people to raise sheep in enclosures and also began to convert some of them into sheep.

The enclosed land is used for grain production. In fact, many enclosures are used for the joint production of grain and livestock, and field-grass rotation was developed under the circumstances.

In grass agriculture, all kinds of land (cultivated land, pasture, cut land, wasteland) are combined for rotation of cereals and grass. Whether leguminous or non-leguminous crops, they are used to raise animals. This breaks down the

The boundary between cultivated land and non-cultivated land has been blurred. Sufficient winter feed can now be provided without reducing grain production. Raising sheep, which was previously incompatible with farming, has now become a valuable sideline in the normal process of agriculture. The abundance of feed has

Cattle no longer graze freely on fallow land, but are raised in sheds. The new animal raising method, in turn, affects the cultivation of cereals. Since sheep are raised in fields with pasture and root crops, sheep are raised in fields with pasture and root crops.

Cows and pigs were raised in large numbers in farmyards, so crops had a rich supply of fertilizers for the first time. In this way, progress in one sector of agriculture led to further progress in other sectors, forming a virtuous cycle, thus changing the past way of cultivating grains.

The history of separate farming and animal raising, and the separation of farmland and pasture, truly organically combines agriculture and animal husbandry. This is the technological revolution in the history of European agriculture and animal husbandry. The reason why this revolution happened is, to some extent, thanks to crops

The introduction of.

2. Introduction of crops

The original purpose of raising sheep in enclosures was to raise sheep, and in order to raise sheep, feed production must be developed. The implementation of field grass agriculture is to increase the supply of animal feed in winter to increase the output of livestock production and grain production. So in the tenth decade

After the seventh century, some of the enclosed land began to be planted with feed crops such as turnips and clover. The introduction of these two crops provided a large amount of feed for livestock and increased the livestock carrying capacity of the land.

Turnips and clover were originally introduced as fodder, but in the process of growing these crops, people found that wheat grew better where clover had been planted, thinking that clover somehow prepared the soil for wheat. Likewise,

Experience also led them to believe that wheat made turnips, turnips made barley, and barley prepared the soil for clover. This led to the four-bed farming of wheat, turnips, barley, and clover known as the "Norfolk rotation system."

The emergence of farming system. This farming system reduces the frequency of leisure, because clover accelerates the nitrification process, and the cultivation of clover clears weeds on the ground, accelerates the turnover of land use, and improves land utilization.

The introduction of turnips and clovers not only increased the feed for animals, improved the livestock carrying capacity and utilization rate of the land, and changed the British farming system, but also played a positive role in expanding the area of ​​cultivated land and increasing the output per unit area.

For example, the gray sand dunes and some areas in southern England were used for farming for the first time after the introduction of turnips and clover. The introduction of turnips and clover increased the livestock capacity and also increased the supply of fertilizers.

Livestock manure was the main fertilizer at that time. The increase in the amount of livestock manure increased soil fertility and grain yield. In addition, turnips and clovers also directly acted on the soil. The combination of turnips and cultivators can achieve weed suppression.

The role of crops. As a nitrogen-fixing leguminous crop, clover increases the supply of nutrients necessary for food crops and plays a very important role in increasing grain yields.

3. Improvement of agricultural tools

The introduction of feed crops also brought improvements in production tools. Because new crops required new agricultural tools, and created the need for seed drills and animal-powered cultivators. Before the 16th century, the plows commonly used in Europe were bulky two-wheeled plows.

Each plow requires an ox team of six to eight oxen. In the 16th century, the Netherlands invented a lighter plow that could be pulled by two horses. This plow

It was introduced to England from the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the first people to use this kind of plow were Norfolk and Suffolk, the birthplace of the enclosure movement. In terms of sowing agricultural tools, before the 16th century,

The only sowing method in Europe is broadcasting, which wastes seeds and results in very low yields. In 1701, Jethro Tull invented the seed drill. In 1731, he published his invention in a book called "Horse Cultivated Agriculture"

, the seed drill was not only the first real seeding machinery produced in Britain, but also an important step towards the elimination of manual labor in British agriculture. Jethro Tull also invented the horse-drawn cultivating hoe. At the same time, people also paid attention to other agricultural tools.

Improvements and inventions have been made. All these inventions and improvements have greatly reduced labor intensity and improved work efficiency. As labor efficiency improves, less labor is required, which requires part of the labor force to be removed from the production process of agriculture and animal husbandry.

If separated, it will form the so-called "sheep eats people" phenomenon.

4. The relationship between technological progress in agriculture and animal husbandry and land enclosures

Before the occurrence of land enclosure, the British practiced the open field system. The open field system was a "public land agricultural system" consisting of "long strips of land". Under this farming system, the land was divided into small strips of land that were intertwined with each other.

, forced to be cultivated according to the type of crops and farming time every year. This is a backward system of land management and utilization. As the British poet Thomas Taser believed in the second half of the sixteenth century, from this long strip

This outdated farming method was a waste of time and could not produce an appropriate amount of food. The enclosure movement rearranged open fields and public fields to make them more conducive to farming.

The development of animal husbandry and its production technology.

This is also true. The enclosure movement and the improvement of agriculture and animal husbandry in the UK were carried out almost simultaneously. Initially, land was enclosure for raising sheep, and newly introduced feed crops were sown on the enclosure to raise sheep. Enclosure and the introduction of new crops have certain characteristics.

The same purpose. Newly introduced crops can only be planted on enclosed land, because crops cannot be changed at will in the open field system. The introduction of new crops has led to the emergence of the four-bed rotation system, which first appeared in

Norfolk is therefore called the Norfolk farming system. And Norfolk is the area where the enclosure movement first occurred. From here we can also see the positive role that the enclosure movement played in changing the farming system.

It should also be pointed out that the improvement of agriculture and animal husbandry is not only a technical issue, but also a political and economic issue. In the case of small-scale peasant economy, it is not enough to carry out effective technical improvement. It can only be established through enclosure.

Private ownership of large-scale land can provide economic guarantee for technological progress, because agricultural and animal husbandry improvements require a large amount of capital investment, which objectively requires the participation of very wealthy large land-renting farmers. And those who were originally social

The reason why some of the low-status government-owned farmers were able to eventually become wealthy large-rented farmers was precisely because they made a fortune in the special land-renting process of the "Enclosure Movement".

Harrison said in "An Overview of England": "In the past, farmers who had difficulty handing over 4 pounds now have to pay 40, 50, or 100 pounds, but when the lease expires, if they have no savings in their hands,

If the rent is 6-7 years, it is considered a bad business." So, in a sense, without the enclosure movement, there would be no existence of these very wealthy large land-renting farmers, and there would be no

The technological revolution in British agriculture and animal husbandry.

The enclosure movement also provided a place for improving agricultural tools. Because large-scale agricultural machinery must operate normally on vast and flat land, it is necessary to transform the original natural attributes of the land, such as height inequality, and eliminate all kinds of artificial

Obstacles. It is difficult to use mechanical operations on uneven and fragmented land. Only by filling up the land can we pave the way for agricultural mechanization. Land filling also depends on the change of land ownership and the investment of large amounts of capital.

, and all of this can only be achieved on the basis of enclosure.

It is not difficult to see from this that the technological revolution in agricultural and animal husbandry in modern Britain was carried out by those farmers who were originally low-status government farmers who transformed into wealthy agricultural capitalists on their own large farms with rented land.

The British agricultural structure has been mainly based on a combination of agriculture and animal husbandry since ancient times, but this is mainly from the perspective of land occupation. From the perspective of labor occupation, the demand for labor in animal husbandry is much less than that of growing grains. According to

It is estimated that raising sheep requires 80% less labor than growing grains. Sheep raising in particular requires no supervision for most of the year. In the mid-15th century, only one male labor force in England could manage 500 sheep.

Acres of sheep pastures. And the enclosure of sheep has caused animal husbandry to replace agriculture. The result will inevitably be a decline in the rural working population. Therefore, “where 200 people once worked and lived on their honest labor, now only one is left.

Two shepherds." This is a more important reason for Thomas More's so-called "sheep cannibalism". As a result, small landowners went bankrupt and the number of farms decreased sharply, while the area of ​​some farms increased.

Continuous expansion is the only way to intensify agricultural management. It is originally a good thing, but some people say it is a bad thing.

The enclosure movement caused farmers to leave the land and provided a large amount of labor force for the development of urban industry and commerce. With the development of urban industry and commerce, the demand for agricultural products expanded, which stimulated the widespread adoption of agricultural technology improvements to increase land productivity and

The value of land, so after some wealthy farmers established large farms, they also changed their original production methods, implemented economies of scale on their farms, and produced commodities to meet market demand, prompting them to carry out rational management to improve their land.

and the productivity of labor force, such as replacing manpower with animal-powered tools, and replacing oxen with horse-drawn plowing. The enclosure movement did not simply turn cultivated land into pasture land, and then into cultivated land, but transformed farmers' small-scale farming into

It turned into large-scale grazing and large-scale farming, that is, from the original self-sufficient feudal mode of production to a capitalist mode of production.

We have to admit that for small landowners, this land enclosure movement is indeed a bad thing. However, when we understand history, we must look at the problem from the perspective of development as a whole, and we must not look at it from the perspective of local interests.

, looking at the problem from a narrow perspective. In fact, it is such a simple truth, but Marx, who has always claimed to be a "scientific" theory, seems to be unscientific at all.

5. Social benefits of enclosure movement

Although in the early days of the British enclosure movement, the number of enclosures was very limited, the benefits that enclosures brought to British agriculture at that time were also obvious. By the end of the 16th century, the depth and breadth of British agricultural and animal husbandry production had developed.

All of them are inferior to other European countries. First, it promoted the steady growth of the sheep raising industry, which reached its peak in the early 1650s. At the same time, grain production did not decrease due to land enclosures, but instead increased.

There has been an increase. Although Henry VIII banned the export of grain, except for those with charters, generally speaking, "throughout this century, Britain tended to export grain and meat." This is inseparable from enclosure.

.As Taser said in the poem:

Travel to the ends of the earth

Let you find

What could be better than enclosure?

Produce more beef and mutton

Best cereal, cream and cheese?

The reason why enclosure can produce more and better food than before is mainly because it uses a lot of advanced science and technology. Therefore, the enclosure movement promotes the technological progress and development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

The development of agriculture and animal husbandry caused by the enclosure movement eventually brought benefits to all British people. This benefit was reflected in the food of the British in the seventeenth century. At that time, British farmers and laborers could usually eat fat.

Bacon, fatty bacon, dry cheese, coarse bread, etc., so much so that some people at the time thought that "there is no other country in the world where the lower class people can have better food than England." This is what sheep enclosures bring.

The most direct benefit. But the significance of the enclosure movement goes far beyond that. It had a significant impact on British science and technology and society at that time; it also laid a good foundation for the subsequent British bourgeois revolution and British industrial revolution.

After understanding the true situation of the British land enclosure movement, let us analyze the qualitative issues of original capital accumulation in this process.

Historian D.J. Chambers believes that agricultural improvement in enclosures in the 18th century was not mainly through the invention of high-efficiency machines, but by introducing new crops, improving livestock breeds, improving farming systems, improving drainage systems, changing the tenancy system, etc.

, resulting in many new jobs such as building fences, building roads, artificially planting pasture, etc. In addition, enclosure also reclaimed large areas of public land and wasteland, expanded the cultivated area, and the new farming system also eliminated fallow. All of this shows that
To be continued...