EH.Net Abstracts in Economic History

            EHS Abstract Submission
                    (c) 1997 EH.Net
-----------------------------------------------------------
              Name:  Liam Brunt
               Email:  not available
         Institution:  Nuffield College, University of Oxford 
 
         Co-author:  None
 
             Title:  Turning Water into Wine: New Methods of
Calculating Farm Output and New Insights into Rising Crop Yields
during the Agricultural Revolution  

  Internet Address
of abstracted work:
http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/History/water2.ps AND
http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/History/wat2_ps.zip  

           By mail:  
                     Liam Brunt
                     Nuffield College
                     Oxford
                     OX1 1NF, England
 
          Language:  English
 
          Abstract:
   Constructing an agricultural output series requires a rational
economic basis on which to convert one crop into another, and a
conversion method using only the information that we have at our
disposal. The traditional method fails on both counts. We develop
two alternative methods. The first is extremely parsimonious but
imprecise; the second is less parsimonious but allows us to
isolate the effect of different crop rotations on wheat yields. 
We compare the three methods using the farm dataset compiled by
Arthur Young on his tours of England and Wales during the
Agricultural Revolution, and we show that new fallow crops
substantially increased the wheat yield.
 
      Bibliography:  University of Oxford, Discussion Papers in
Economic and Social History, No. 2 (December 1995).
 
                  Subject:  C
 Geographical Area:  0
      Country/Region:  with an application to England
           Time Period:  6