Stanton, Georgia (2025) British Agriculture During the First World War: Local Experience and National Policy. Masters thesis, York St John University.
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Abstract
At the outbreak of the First World War, British agriculture was in economic depression due to the ‘laissez-faire’ trading system of successive governments, resulting in cheap imports from larger producers flooding the market. The war highlighted Britain’s reliance on imports as food security was pushed to its limits through the unrestricted submarine warfare initiated by Germany early in 1917. The British government passed the Corn Production Act and the Food Production Policy to aid Britain’s food security by increasing arable production at the expense of livestock.
These policies became central to all government interaction with the industry from providing substitute resources, labour substitution, and government owned machinery to enforcing the cultivation of land to help increase arable production. However, different areas of the nation fared better than other under the wartime policies.
By using a wide range of sources from multiple archives and building upon other historians' work, this study provides evidence that the wartime industry was far more complex than the national picture leads historians to believe. Regional differences, from geological conditions to the nature of farming practices in those areas all affected how they experienced the war. Local farming communities also displayed impressive organisational ability in their largely successful application of government policy. This study also highlights how the war was not the only reason for the change seen throughout this period but intensified the natural trends the industry faced at the time.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) |
| School/Department: | School of Humanities |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/13745 |
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