Property Rights and Agricultural Growth in Northwestern Europe, 1300–1800

Abstract

How to explain the agricultural growth in the Low Countries and England over the period 1300–1800? This study investigates whether the transition towards private and secure land property rights drove agricultural growth, and through what mechanisms such impact occurred. The study employs regional, long-term and comparative approaches. Five case studies—the two main cases being Holland and Norfolk and the three minor ones inland and coastal Flanders and the South Midlands—serve as representatives of the advanced agriculture in the Low Countries and England, and broader in northwestern Europe. The study demonstrates that the favourable development of land property rights formed a precondition for and drove agricultural growth under certain conditions, but the extent of this growth varied, and in some cases stagnation occurred. The crucial points were as follows: free, private and secure property rights increased the transferability of land; land was transferred to dominant social groups which were different across regions; this gave rise to different strategies of land management and different farm size distribution; which in turn shaped labour input patterns and land use models, and thus determined agricultural growth in terms of labour productivity.