In focusing on those countries which by 1870 still had a large agricultural sector, namely, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Hungary, Greece and Turkey, this book determines the role of the agricultural sector in the economic development of Europe. These chapters demonstrate how the rate of development in the agricultural sector depended on specific industrial, political and market conditions; the diversity of ways and timings through which transformation was achieved is also considered.
Pedro Lains is Research Professor at the University of Lisbon. Vicente Pinilla is Professor of Economic History at the University of Zaragoza.