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N o t e s o f C h 6 P e a s a n t s a n d Fa r m e r s | C l a s s 9 t h
Histor y
 31 Jan, 2018

Study Material and Notes of Ch 6 Peasants and Farmers Class 9th History

• This chapter deals with the lives of peasants and farmers of three locations:

→ the small cottagers in England.

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→ the wheat farmers of the USA.

→ the opium producers of Bengal.

T h e Co m i n g o f M o d e r n A g r i c u l t u re i n E n g l a n d

• Before sixteenth century, in large parts of England, the countryside was open.

• The common land was there which is accessible to all villagers where they can graze their
animals, collect forest products, catch �sh and hunt animals.

• With the rise in population, the demand for food grains also increased.
→ Rich farmers began dividing and enclosing common land

• After the mid-eighteenth century, this enclosure process expanded through the countryside.

• British Parliament passed 4000 Acts legalising these enclosures.

N e w D e m a n d s fo r G ra i n

• After mid-eighteenth century, the demand of foodgrains increased in England because:

→ Rise in Population
→ People began to live and work in urban areas
→ War between France and England

T h e A g e o f E n c l o s u re s

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• In the nineteenth century grain production in England grew as quickly as population by

(i) bringing new land under cultivation
(ii) growing turnip and clover, these crops improved the soil and made it more fertile.

W h a t H a p p e n e d To t h e P o o r ?

• Enclosures found their customary rights gradually disappearing

→ Now everything was available on payment basis only

• By 1800, labourers were being paid wages and employed only during harvest time.

T h e I n t ro d u c t i o n o f T h re s h i n g M a c h i n e s

• During the Napoleonic Wars, farmers began buying the new threshing machines that had come
into the market, fearing a shortage of labour.

• After the war, soldiers returned to the villages and needed alternative jobs to survive.

• As their jobs were taken over by the machines, people were not able to �nd jobs.

• Thus, they started threatening farmers through letters urging them to stop using machines that
deprived workmen of their livelihood.
→ Most of these letters were signed in the name of Captain Swing.

B re a d B a s ke t a n d D u s t B o w l – C a s e S t u d y o f U S

• Till the 1780s, white American settlements were con�ned to a small narrow strip of coastal land
in the east.

• White Americans lived in a narrow strip of coastal land in the east.

• Native American groups survived by hunting, gathering, �shing or by doing shifting cultivation.

The Westward move and Wheat Cultivation

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• After the formation of USA, white settlers started moving towards west, America seemed to be
a land of promise.

• White settlers drove American Indians westwards and settled in the Applachian, than in
Mississippi valley, cleared land and sowed corn and wheat.

T h e W h e a t Fa r m e r s

• Rise in the urban population increased the demand for wheat and encouraged farmers to
produce wheat.

• Spread of Railways and First World War created more demand.

T h e Co m i n g o f N e w Te c h n o l o g y

• Through the nineteenth century, the farmers entered the mid-western prairies and they needed
new types of implements to break the sod and the soil.

• Before the 1830s, to harvest crop they initially used cradle or sickle.
→ In 1831 Cyrus McCormick invented the �rst Mechanical reaper.

• By early twentieth century most farmers were using combined harvesters to cut grain.

What Happened to the Poor?

• Many of them bought these machines on loans, however, many were not able to pay back their
debts, deserted their farms and looked jobs elsewhere

• Unsold foodgrains stocks piled up.

→ Wheat prices fell and export markets collapsed.
→ This created the grounds for the Great Agrarian Depression of the 1930s.

Dust Bowl

• In the 1930s terrifying duststorms rolled in.

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• People were blinded and choked, cattle were su�ocated to death.

• Sand buried fences, covered �elds and coated the surfaces of rivers till the �sh died.
→ Machines were logged with dust, damaged beyond repair.

• The entire landscape was ploughed, stripped of all grass, tractors had turned the soil over and
broken the sod into dust.

• They came because the early 1930s were years of persistent drought.

T h e I n d i a n Fa r m e r a n d O p i u m P ro d u c t i o n

• The British imposed a regular system of land revenue, increase revenue rates, and expand the
area under cultivation.

• By the end of the nineteenth century, India became a major centre for production of sugarcane,
cotton, jute, wheat and several other crops for export.

A T a s t e fo r Te a : T h e Tr a d e w i t h C h i n a

• The English East India Company was buying tea and silk from China.

• The Confucian rulers of China, the Manchus were not willing to allow the entry of foreign goods.
→ English could buy tea only by paying in silver coins or bullion which meant an out�ow of
treasure from England.

• The English traders wanted a community which could be easily sold in China so that the import
of tea could be �nanced in a pro�table way.

• Western merchants began an illegal trade in opium in the mid-eighteenth century.

W h e re d i d O p i u m co m e f ro m ?

• When the British conquered Bengal, they made a �ort to produce opium in the lands under their
control.

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• With the growth of market for opium in China, export from Bengal ports increased.

• The Indian farmers were not willing to produce opium because:

→ They were not willing to divert their best �elds for opium cultivation because it would have
resulted in poor production cereals and pulses.
→ Many cultivators did not own land. For opium cultivation, they had to lease land from landlords
and pay rent.
→ The cultivation of opium was a di�cult process and time consuming.
→ The government paid very low price for the opium which made it an unpro�table proposition.

H o w We r e U n w i l l i n g C u l t i v a t o r s M a d e t o P r o d u c e O p i u m ?

• By giving advance loan, the cultivator was forced to grow opium on a speci�ed area of land and
hand over the produce to the agents once the crop had been harvested.

• The cultivator also had to accept the low price o�ered for the produce.

• British wanted to buy very cheap and sell at high premium to the opium agents in Calcutta.
Thus, the British wanted to earn huge pro�t in opium trade.

• By the early eighteenth century, the cultivators began to refuse the advances.
→ Many cultivators sold their crop to travelling traders who o�ered higher prices.

• By 1773, the British government in Bengal had established a monopoly to trade in opium.

• By the 1820s, the British found that there was a drastic fall in opium production in their
territories.

• The production of opium was increasing outside the British territories.

→ It was produced in Central India and Rajasthan which were not under British control. The local
traders in these regions were o�ering much higher prices to peasants.

• The Government instructed its agents in those princely states to con�scate all opium and
destroy the crops.

S u b s c r i b e t o S t u d y R a n ke r s P re m i u m a n d G e t a l l d e t a i l e d n o t e s o f H i s t o r y

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C l i c k H e re

N C E R T S o l u t i o n s o f C h 6 P e a s a n t s a n d Fa r m e r s

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