864 B
864 B
Agricultural Development Constraints
Definition
The institutional, legal, and social barriers that prevented agricultural improvement including primogeniture, entails, servile labor systems, insecure tenure, arbitrary taxation, and trade restrictions that collectively kept European agriculture below its potential productivity.
Source Chapter
Book III, Chapter 2
Context
Smith presents these constraints as the comprehensive system that discouraged agricultural investment and improvement throughout medieval Europe, arguing that their gradual removal through legal reform and economic development was essential for the agricultural revolution that preceded the industrial revolution.
Economic Domain
Production