What Do You Understand by the Term Peasant?
The word "peasant" is taken from the 15th-century French word païsant, which means the one from the pays, or countryside; eventually from the Latin pagus, or distant administrative district. This page will help you understand the peasants and farmers of the world. Besides this, you will get the information about the Peasants and farmers of India, Peasants and farmers in the USA, Peasants and farmers in England and Difference between peasants and farmers, etc.
About Peasants - Introduction
In general, the word “peasantry” is used in a disregarded manner as a collective noun that refers to the rural population in the poor and developing countries of the world.
Where, a peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural farmer with restricted land-ownership, specifically the one residing in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord.
In Europe, the following three classes of peasants existed:
Slave,
Serf, and
Free tenant.
These farmers can hold title to land by the following forms of land tenure:
Socage,
Quit-rent,
Leasehold, and
Copyhold.
What is the Significance Of Peasants Across the World?
Peasants typically formed the bulk of the agricultural labour force in a pre-industrial society. Maximum people consistent with one estimate 85 % of the population, in the Middle Ages were peasants.
Though "peasant" is a word of loose application, as soon as a market economy had taken root, the term peasant proprietors were often used to describe the conventional rural population in countries where smallholders farmed a great deal of the land.
In the peasant class, there were distinguishing social levels. The lowest of low has been a sort of slave referred to as serfs. Serfs were considered the assets of their Lords and trusted them for refuge and food. Serfs couldn't depart their manor without the Lord's permission yet they nevertheless had to pay lease and paintings the farms.
Above the serfs have been the farmers. Some farmers might own their personal farms however the huge majority worked alongside the serfs on the lord’s land.
Peasants And Farmers Of the World - India, England, And the USA
Now, we will talk about the peasants and farmers in the following countries:
India
England
USA
Peasants And Farmers of India
India is undoubtedly known as the land of farmers. Agriculture is the top occupation of the masses, the sector includes a huge number of farmers who're either into agricultural or allied activities. The gift legal system includes the laws that are scattered both in their application and approach to the issues of the farmers in general and small farmers in particular.
Some farmers in India are into industrial labour running the hazard of losing their agricultural pattern of living for urban unskilled jobs. Only if there's a suitable definition of who is either a small or marginal farmer, then the handiest of the legislations will be capable of addressing the issues of the small and the marginal categories of farmers. The paper seeks to describe that there is not only a desire to legally recognise via legislation that the farmers in India are of many classes, additionally, but the farmers can also benefit only through separate legislation dedicated entirely to farmers.
Opium Cultivation in India
British trade with China and records of opium cultivation in India connect together. The East India Company of England was purchasing tea from China to sell it in England. Very soon the tea became very well-known and the demand in England increased and the supply additionally improved from the East India Company. To balance their trade with China, they searched for a commodity they could sell to China. They found opium. England bought tea from China and consequently, China bought opium from England.
When England took Bengal under their control they sorted the maximum production of opium. Market expansion of China allowed a huge quantity of opium to float from Bengal to China.
Opposition Of Framers In India Against East India Company
As the British made sure to maximise the manufacturing of opium. The peasants opposed them because of the subsequent reasons:
Opium needed to be grown on fertile land on the fields that were close to the villages and were properly manured.
Many farms owned no land to cultivate opium. So they had to pay rent and lease land from the landlords.
The cultivation of opium is an extended and difficult process.
The price paid by the British for the opium produced was very low and it was unprofitable for the farmers to cultivate opium for them.
The British discovered that opium produced in British territories was declining, while in territories not under British rule the production was increasing. Those traders have been selling opium directly to China. This moved the British authorities to establish a monopoly over this trade.
Peasants and Farmers in England
Let's discuss about England's peasants as well as farmers:
Open Fields and Common Land : In England, the countryside had numerous open fields. The peasants and farmers cultivated those open fields which were strips of land close to the village. At the start of every year, people were allocated these strips of land that were of varying quality. This became to make sure that everyone was given a share of good and bad land.
And past these divided strips was the common land which became utilized by all and everybody had to access common land to gather fodder, firewood, berries and to graze cattle. For the poor, the common land was very useful as it sustained their survival if their crop didn’t make any cash in the market.
Everything was peaceful and well going till the sixteenth century. During the sixteenth century, wool‘s demand rose in the international market. Farmers commenced to trespass in the common land to enhance the sheep breed as it promised desirable feed. These acts were referred to as enclosures. They did not permit the poor who were dependent on that land to access it. As the enclosures commenced to trespass the common land, there was no idea of common land left.
During the mid 18th century, this act of enclosing on common land unfolded via the entire geographical region in England to fulfill the increasing demand for food grains due to industrialization. Then, the British authorities surpassed 4000 acts of legalizing these enclosures.
Grain Cultivation - Innovation in Agriculture : During the mid-18th century, the population of England expanded 4 times. Britain was at the tip of industrialization. People were transferring to cities. There was a drop in farmers. As more and more people migrated in the urban areas. There was a growth in the demand for food grains.
The market of foodgrains expanded and regardless to say, this motivated the landowners to get more control of land. The result of this act was that the manufacturing of foodgrains accelerated like never before. Britain was generating 80% of the food the population consumed. Due to this alarming need for foodgrains, landowners enclosed on common lands even more.
The forests were reduced down, took over marshes, and became larger regions into fields. The poor farmers had access to the common lands. This was a very tough time for the poor as their income was affecting, work was uncertain and even their customary rights were deteriorating.
Innovation in Agriculture : The threshing machine was invented at some point in the Napoleonic conflict. This meant less dependency on labour and plus a lift in manufacturing. A single device could do the work of 20 labourers. Soldiers returned after the war and couldn’t find a job. The economic strain starts to cover Britain because the workers were opposing the advent of a threshing machine.
After grains started entering England from Europe, the prices fell. Landowners commenced lessening the production of the grain. Agriculture despair clouded England. In the midst of the advent of threshing machines, riots broke out because of the pressure of unemployment. The farmers were facing threats from a mythic discern name ‘Captain Swing’. During midnight the farms were burnt and stuck inside decreased to ashes. The government announced the arrest of the protestors.
Peasants and Farmers in the USA
As the enclosures and grain cultivation occurred in England, most of the landscape was not under the control of white Americans. By the 1780s, they were settled in the tiny narrow strip of Eastern coastal land. By the early twentieth century, this situation was reversed when white Americans moved westwards as they displaced the native local tribes and took control of the West coast of America.
While shifting towards the West, they cleared the land and cultivated wheat. As they gained control of both of the coastal lines, there was an increase in population. And the wheat they cultivated, paid off. The export market in America boomed. This scenario inspired the farmers to produce more. Furthermore, during the first world war, Russia reduced off the wheat supply. President Wilson advised the farmers to cultivate more wheat, he said: “Plant more wheat, Wheat will win this war.”
Difference Between Peasants and Farmers
A peasant, for most cases, reflects an agricultural labourer who is very poor and occupies the lower level of social hierarchy. A farmer, on the other hand, designates a man who works on agricultural land or owns farmland. However, the term farmer does not imply the person's economy or social position.
Did You Know?
Conclusion
So, basically, with an increase in the demand for wheat, the farmers updated their devices and installed devised technology to produce the wheat supply. Tractors, discs, ploughs, and mechanical reapers were employed for wheat production.
Poor farmers were badly impacted by the technological uprise, not only in the USA but across the entire world. The poor farmers purchased costly equipment on loan. Just then the import and export demand for wheat in the market dropped. Due to price fall, poor farmers could not repay the loans they opted for the machinery. Wheat and corn became animal feed. The huge depression of the 1930s affected the poor farmers.
FAQs on Peasants and Farmers of the World
1. What is the main difference between peasants and farmers as discussed in this chapter?
The primary difference lies in their relationship with the land and their production goals. Peasants typically worked on small plots of land, often rented from a landlord, and grew food mainly for their own family's survival. In contrast, farmers, especially those in places like England after the enclosures or in America, were often landowners who cultivated crops on a larger scale with the main goal of selling them in the market for a profit.
2. What exactly was the Enclosure Movement in England?
The Enclosure Movement was a process where large landowners in England began fencing off common lands that were previously used by all villagers. Before enclosures, villages had open fields and common pastures for grazing animals. Enclosures consolidated these lands into single, private farm units. This allowed for more organised and productive farming but also took away the traditional land rights of many poor villagers.
3. How did the Enclosure Movement affect the lives of poor villagers?
The impact on poor villagers was often devastating. They lost access to common lands where they could graze their animals, gather firewood, and collect berries. This took away a crucial part of their livelihood. As a result, many were forced to:
- Work for wages on the very lands they once used freely.
- Search for jobs in the growing cities and factories.
- Become landless labourers, completely dependent on wealthy farmers for work.
4. Why were farm labourers in England so against the new threshing machines?
Farm labourers were against threshing machines because they directly threatened their jobs. Threshing, the process of separating grain from the husk, was a key source of work during the harvest season. The new threshing machines could do this job much faster and with fewer people. For labourers who depended on this seasonal work to survive the winter, the machines meant lost income and increased poverty, leading to the Captain Swing riots.
5. What was the main reason the British forced Indian peasants to grow opium?
The British forced Indian peasants to grow opium to solve a trade problem with China. The British loved Chinese tea, but China didn't want to buy British goods, creating a trade deficit. To balance this, the British illegally sold opium from India to China. The profits from the opium trade were then used to buy Chinese tea. This system made Indian peasants grow a crop they couldn't eat, purely for British commercial gain.
6. How was wheat farming in the USA different from farming in England during that era?
The main difference was the scale and the technology used. In the USA, vast, open prairies were turned into wheat fields by individual farmers who used modern machinery like mechanical reapers to manage huge areas. In England, farming was more about landowners employing wage labourers on smaller, enclosed farms. American wheat farming was seen as a symbol of modern, mechanised agriculture, while English agriculture was defined by the social hierarchy of landlord and labourer.
7. What were the long-term consequences of large-scale wheat farming on the American plains?
While initially very productive, this type of farming had severe environmental consequences. Ploughing up the natural prairie grasses that held the soil in place left the land vulnerable. When a severe drought hit in the 1930s, the fragile topsoil turned to dust. This led to the Dust Bowl, a period of massive dust storms that destroyed farms, buried homes, and forced thousands of families to abandon their land in search of a new life.
