50 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



America. Because of this direct relationship between British 

 agriculture and our own, it is important that we know some- 

 thing about the development of agriculture in the mother 

 country, especially during the period immediately preceding 

 and contemporaneous with our colonial era. 



English indebtedness to the New World. The manorial sys- 

 tem having fallen into decay, as described in the preceding 

 section, and the open-field system having begun to give way 

 before the consolidation of holdings and the growth of inclo- 

 sures, English agriculture was just entering upon a new period 

 of development at the time of the founding of the first Eng- 

 lish colonies in America. It is probable, however, that the 

 New World itself had indirectly contributed something to that 

 awakening. The vast quantities of silver and gold, particularly 

 silver, which flowed into Europe as the result of the Spanish 

 conquest and exploitation of Mexico and various South American 

 countries, greatly increased the circulating medium of the civ- 

 ilized world and brought on a period of rising prices. The 

 English managed to get a share of this treasure not only by 

 the peaceful methods of trade and commerce, but by the methods 

 of war and piracy. A period of rising prices is generally an 

 advantage to the farming class, particularly at a time when 

 farmers buy little and sell much, though sometimes a corre- 

 sponding disadvantage to other classes. This period of rising 

 prices, following the greater abundance of money, doubtless 

 contributed its share to the progress of English agriculture' 

 during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 



Besides having increased the world's supply of the precious 

 metals, the New World contributed several new agricultural 

 products to the Old World during this period, particularly 

 Indian corn, the potato, and tobacco. Neither corn nor tobacco 

 have ever been largely cultivated in England, the climate being 

 too cool and the season too short. But the potato eventually 



