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About this Book
Arthur Young (1741-1820) was an 18th century English writer who is best
known for the detailed accounts he published of his "travels" in
England, Wales, Ireland and France on the eve of the revolution. After
he inherited his father's family estate in 1759 he began experimenting
with agricultural improvements in order to maximise output. Although he
was not always successful in achieving his goals, his writings contained
very detailed observations and analysis of agricultural matters and were
extremely popular. He began with A Course of Experimental Agriculture
(1770) based upon his personal experiences and then traveled widely,
commenting on the state of agriculture in Britain and France. The
following books were the result: A Six Weeks' Tour through the Southern
Counties of England and Wales (1768), A Six Months' Tour through the
North of England (1770), Farmer's Tour through the East of England
(1771), A Tour in Ireland 1776-1779 (1780), and Travels in France during
the Years 1787, 1788, 1789 (1792). He also published a number of
reference works on agriculture and farming which went through many
editions and were translated into several European languages. These
included the Farmer's Calendar(1771), Political Arithmetic (1774), and
the 45 volume Annals of Agriculture (1784-). Upon his return from France
he was appointed to the position of secretary of the Board of
Agriculture in the British government in which capacity he organized the
collection and preparation of agricultural surveys of the English
counties. Later in life he suffered from blindness brought on by severe
cataracts and a failed operation to cure it.
Young was a pioneer in the detailed observation of economic conditions
in the countryside and the collection of statistical data relating to
agriculture. Although modern historians dispute the reliability of his
data and the conclusions he sometimes draws from them they recognise the
important work he did in beginning the modern collection and analysis of
this material. Young is also noteworthy for the sheer luck of being in
France on the eve of and during the early part of the French
Revolution. He was able to provide in his dairies close observations of
the social, political and economic conditions of the French countryside
as it was convulsed by violent revolution. This makes his Travels in
France (1792) particularly valuable to historians.
Politically, Young was a liberal reformer. He urged the repeal of the penal laws which
discriminated against Catholics, he condemned the British regulation of
Irish commerce, and criticised the Irish Parliament's industrial policy
of prohibitions and bounties. He was a staunch supporter of property
rights in agriculture as a means of reducing poverty. Some of his more
famous sayings were "the magic of property turns sand into gold" and
"give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it
into a garden; give him a nine years' lease of a garden, and he will
convert it into a desert."
Betham-Edwards (Miss Matilda Betham-Edwards, 1836-1919) published editions of Young's Travels in France in 1889 (listed as the 2nd ed.), 1890 (3rd ed.), 1892 (4th corrected ed.).
Bibliography
Allen, Robert C. and Cormac Ó Gráda, "On the Road Again with Arthur
Young: English, Irish, and French Agriculture during the Industrial
Revolution," Journal of Economic History 48 (1988): 93-116.
Brunt Liam, "Rehabilitating Arthur Young," Economic History Review 56
(2003): 265-99.
Gazley, John G., The Life of Arthur Young, 1741-1820. Philadelphia
Philosophical Society, 1973.
Mingay, G.E. (ed.). Arthur Young and His Times. London: Macmillan,
1975.
Stead, David R. "Arthur Young". EH.net Encyclopedia
http://www.eh.net/encyclopedia/?article=stead.young
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