A Concise History of World Population by Massimo Livi Bacci

Author:Massimo Livi Bacci [Livi‐Bacci, Massimo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781119029304
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2017-03-06T00:00:00+00:00

A word on the causes of European migration is, however, in order. We have already referred to these in general terms: the creation of surplus population that the economic system could not absorb (Figure 4.9), the availability of land and capital combined with a strong demand for labor in America, income gaps between home and overseas destinations, and the “shrinking” of the world due to cheaper, easier, and more rapid transportation. But this analysis needs to be pursued further in order to understand better the reasons behind the gigantic transfer of population. In particular, three complex phenomena and their interrelationships need to be identified: first, rural population growth, the availability of land both in Europe and outside it, and agricultural productivity; second, the rural population dynamic; and third, the contemporary growth of nonagricultural activities.

With regard to the first point, in the latter half of the eighteenth century about three‐quarters of the population of all European countries except England, which was rapidly industrializing, were employed in agriculture. This proportion dropped rapidly though not uniformly during the following century: in 1850 it was about half and by the beginning of the twentieth century about one‐third. Nonetheless, the size of the agricultural population grew during the first part of the century due to rapid European demographic growth (a doubling during the course of the century) and stabilized in the latter part.27 Demographic expansion increased demand for food, and this demand was for the most part due to the increase in cultivated land. New land was available in northern Europe and also east of the Elbe; elsewhere the usual fallow periods were gradually eliminated. Productivity, however, remained low: in the mid‐nineteenth century the wheat yield for one hectare of land was about a ton; by the beginning of the twentieth century this figure had increased by a modest 20 percent.28 The scarcity of land – which multiplied the number of peasants who had none – combined with its slowly increasing productivity would have imposed new “Malthusian” limits on population had it not been for the vast expansion of land cultivated outside Europe. Grigg has calculated that arable land in Europe grew from 140 million to 147 million hectares between 1860 and 1910; in that same period the land cultivated in Russia grew from 49 million to 114 million hectares, in the United States from 66 to 140 million, and in Canada and Argentina from insignificant levels to 33 million.29 The low production costs in the new areas of European settlement and the lowering of shipping costs were in fact the basis of a fall in agricultural prices that plunged the European countryside into crisis from the 1870s. Finally, while the productivity of land grew sluggishly, the injection of capital into the countryside and mechanization combined to increase the productivity of labor. Masses of peasants characterized by limited proprietorship and increased productivity of labor translated into a rapid increase in surplus labor, so workers frequently found themselves torn away from traditional activities and lifestyles and facing crisis situations.

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