Agricultural History Review, Volume 59 Part 1 (2011), p. 142

This book is a concise and abridged English version of Jan Bieleman’s important history of Dutch agriculture since 1500, originally published in 1992 and reworked and extended in 2008. With this textbook Bieleman has positioned himself firmly as the most eminent Dutch agro-historian of the last two decades. As in his other publications he firmly attacks traditionally widespread views of an unchanging rural society before the introduction of fertilisers. Next to this, he underlines the enormous variety in agricultural production systems in the relatively small Dutch territory, which must be attributed to the great variety of ‘geological landscapes and soil types’ (p. 26) combined with a Von-Thünen-like relationship with the distance to the main urban markets.

His approach makes this book a real ‘cows and ploughs history’ (preface). However, Bieleman states he also wants to deal with agricultural (agrarian) history in a broader sense. That is, ‘the history of farming in its economic and social context, where individual farm management has a relationship with markets, price mechanisms, labour costs, tax burden, free holding and tenancy, common farming institutions, cooperatives, farmers’ societies and more’ (p. 17).

The agricultural history of the Netherlands has an appeal that extends beyond a Dutch readership. As one of the most urbanized regions in the early modern world, it presents an excellent example of how urbanization and market demand influences agriculture in both the immediate vicinity and over larger distances. Dutch agriculture was also remarkable for its high productivity (per capita and per acre) for over five centuries. As a result, the Netherlands remains one of the world’s leading agricultural exporters, despite its limited land area. Bieleman states that the basis of this continuing success was a process of ‘intensification’ in which ‘ever more labour and/or capital was deployed in order to increase production’, where capital also includes technology and knowledge.

In the sixteenth century agriculture in the Dutch coastal provinces was indeed heavily influenced by the extensive and increasing urbanisation. Growing market-orientation resulted in specialisation in specific agricultural products (for instance horticulture or madder), in high productivity, and in an increasing number of rural specialists working outside agriculture. Consequently, only a minority of the total coastal population was working in agriculture in the seventeenth century. The Dutch coastal food market and the coastal farmers had both become fully integrated into national and international markets, with, for instance, substantial imports of grain from the Baltic and oxen from Denmark, and large exports of cheese to France. The effects in the peripheral, less urbanized inland provinces were more limited. Nevertheless, inland agriculture also underwent drastic changes due to the rising market opportunities, which were heavily dependent on the local geographical situation.

For the lengthy period of de-urbanisation between 1650 and 1850, Bieleman depicts the many minor changes in agricultural production in coastal and inland regions as a reaction to changing market circumstances. In this respect, he adheres to the ‘secular trend’, locating these developments within a long-term positive relationship between (agricultural) prices and population growth. Unfortunately, the term ‘secular trend’ only describes, but does not in any way explain, these long-term developments.

During the period of the Industrial Revolution, the Netherlands lost its position as a ‘core economy’, though it became an export nation specialising in ‘luxury’ livestock and horticultural products, directed first to the English market, and then to countries all over the world. Dutch agriculture remained successful in the long run, thanks to rigorous scientific development and mechanisation from 1850 onwards, which Bieleman again illustrates with many examples. Remarkably, technological development went together with rising inputs of agricultural labour until about 1950. By treating many branches of agriculture (wheat, sugar beet, potato, pigs, poultry and dairy) separately for the second half of the twentieth century, Bieleman shows the emergence of what is often called ‘agribusiness’ in the Netherlands. Despite employing a diminishing share of the labour force, and being subject to increasing environmental and ecological problems, the high productivity of agriculture remains one of the strengths of the Dutch economy.

It is only possible to give a slight idea of the wealth of information Bieleman provides. However, the enormous amount of detail for different regions does not make this book a particularly easy read. Nevertheless it is, without doubt, an indispensable reference work. For even more data, the Dutch version Boeren in Nederland, Geschiedenis van de landbouw 1500–2000 (2008), which is almost twice as big, can be consulted.

Bieleman’s overview is, nevertheless, unsatisfactory in places. There are few quantitative generalisations for the earlier period in particular. He offers no systematic comparison between regions, and no construction of quantitative indicators for productivity, for the relative importance of the many products over time, for the increase in total labour-input, and for acres cultivated, or wage movements and so on. Five centuries of farming provides few ingenious constructions of the development of Dutch agriculture in the past or new methods and theoretical insights. The images presented are mostly directly derived from older literature, and are usually purely illustrative in character. Recent publications, such as Knibbe’s provincial study Lokkich Fryslan (2006) about the period 1505–1830 and the results of the nineteenth-century Dutch National Accounts Project are not taken into account. In addition, Bieleman hardly presents any international comparisons, because recent non-Dutch literature has not been incorporated. Notwithstanding these weak points, though, this book remains an excellent way to become thoroughly informed about the history of Dutch agriculture.