Agricultural Productivity, Labour Surplus, and Migration

Abstract

This chapter considers the technological transformation of eastern agriculture in the late 19th century. It shows that in 19th-century Germany, the amount of surplus labour was affected by changes in the terms of trade, in particular by the fall in imported grain prices to 1897 and the subsequent recovery, and by changing conditions within agriculture, by institutional developments, and by new agricultural technology. The introduction of new technology meant that a rising urban population could be fed by a rural workforce which was static or falling, thus making it possible for the demographic surplus in rural areas to move out of agriculture into industry. Migration out of agriculture was, therefore, part of a dynamic process, as agriculture adjusted to the new conditions created by industrialization, and was in turn transformed by the effects of industrialization.