so from 1700 until the beginning of the first world war in 1914 a period of great social political and economic upheaval unfolded across the globe every aspect of daily life was transformed in some way the industrial revolution began in britain during the early part of the 18th century prior to this life in britain had remained largely unchanged for generations people lived in agrarian societies farming was ruled by the seasons and the harvest was at the mercy of the sun rain and wind there are many contributing factors that made the industrial revolution possible too many to cover here in this program we will focus on the agricultural revolution the rise of the factory new technology and the role of britain's empire i don't know about you but i wouldn't be happy with a nickname turnip well believe it or not one englishman lord charles townsend was given the nickname turnip townsend and we're about to find out why prior to the industrial revolution most people in britain lived in open field villages they relied on subsistence farming which produced enough food for the peasants or tenants of the landowner but little if any extra farmers used a system of rotating crops over three fields to grow food each year two of the fields were used to grow crops barley and wheat for example while the third field would lie fallow left unplanted to allow the soil to replenish lost nutrients livestock would graze in the fallow field helping to fertilize the soil in the following year the crops would be rotated through the fields one fallow too productive peasant and village households were given a number of strips in the fields to plant their crops from the 16th century onwards landowners started turning open fields into enclosed paddocks that were assigned to a single farm they wanted to bring their land under tighter control and make it more productive this also meant the peasants were no longer able to strip farm and sometimes could not access water now unemployed most of the peasants had two options workers would hired labour on a farm or seek employment in town some of the larger land owners subdivided the land and then leased it back to the peasants [Music] the way in which crops were sown was improved when in 1700 jethro tull invented a horse-drawn seed drill that could plant three rows of seed at a time it was able to drill a hole drop the seeds in and cover them over with soil in one action prior to this seeds would be thrown by hand into the plowed furrows some seed would be eaten by birds and some blew away with the wind jethro tulsi drill dramatically improved production by increasing crop yields five fold in 1730 the rotherham triangular plough patented by joseph foley ambi had an iron blade rather than wood and its design made it lighter and easier to use than earlier plows it required only two horses rather than four and one plowmen the rotherham plow had the dual benefit of cutting labor costs and saving time and now we come to turnip townsend during the 1730s lord turnip townsend introduced the dutch four crop rotation system to britain the four crop rotation system rotated wheat turnips and barley for example through four fields the turnips helped nourish the soil with nutrients which in turn would produce a better wheat and barley crop the following year in winter months turnips were fed to livestock this meant that it was no longer necessary for farmers to slaughter their beasts before winter [Music] improvements in farming had a dramatic social and economic impact in britain it now took fewer people to produce more food [Music] by the end of the 18th century farming had been transformed from primarily satisfying basic food and clothing needs of the village community into a commercial opportunity to sell the increasing food surplus to emerging local and foreign markets