Assessing agricultural adaptation to changing climatic conditions during the English agricultural revolution (1645–1740)

Abstract

This article examines the impact of climatic variability on the English Agricultural Revolution using Allen’s Nitrogen Hypothesis. While half of the variation in yields can be attributed to nitrogen-fixing plants, better cultivation, and improved seeds, the remainder can be attributed to changing climatic conditions during the relatively cold period from c. 1645–1715 and the subsequent warmer phase. The study finds that farmers made even greater efforts than observed yields during the colder and more humid climate of the second half of the seventeenth century and the early eighteenth. Conversely, increasing temperatures in the following period had a positive effect on agricultural productivity, indicating that farmers' role during this phase have been overrated.