This book deals with land productivity. Agriculture took the largest share of GNP before the mid-... more This book deals with land productivity. Agriculture took the largest share of GNP before the mid-nineteenth century and so economic growth must focus on agricultural transformations and measurements of agricultural productivity and its determinants. The 1963 study by B.H. Slicher van Bath on yield ratios across Europe was epoch-making. But more recent studies point to the necessity of placing and analysing land productivity more clearly within agricultural, ecological and socio-economic contexts. This publication reflects the new developments and findings in this field, for the North Sea area from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The book consists of three sections: the first contains national longterm overviews for each of the North Sea countries; the second part presents several case studies which examine the relationship between land productivity and agro-systems; and the last part consists of general comparative studies.
This paper forms the introduction to the book "Rural societies and environments at risk. Ecology,... more This paper forms the introduction to the book "Rural societies and environments at risk. Ecology, property rights and social organisation in fragile areas, Middle Ages-twentieth century". It first offers a succinct survey of the environmental risks and the margins of agrarian production in the past and next it focuses on these margins in fragile environments. Rural land use in these environments was endangered either because of too much water as a result of river floods or storm surges of the sea, or because of too little water. In other cases, their mountainous location or poor soils created a kind of inherent vulnerability. Because of the difficult circumstances, these areas allow for a test at the extreme margin, where the relationship between mankind and ecology is most fragile. As argued in this introduction, a major element in better understanding the ways in which rural societies have dealt with the fragility of their environments, and their different degrees of success, is the investigation of the property rights to the land and their exact formulation. Next, it discusses how the formulation of these property rights, and their effects, in their turn, can only be explained when placed in their social context and investigated in the long run. We argue that this should be a main research agenda for the field in the coming years.
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Papers by Erik Thoen