NCERT Solutions Class 9 Social Science Chapter 6 Peasants and Farmers

1. Explain briefly what the  open  field  system meant to rural people in eighteenth-century England. Look at the  system from the  point of view  of:

A rich farmer

A labourer

A peasant  woman

Answer:

A rich farmer: From the sixteenth century, in some of the regions  in England, the rich farmers started enclosing open fields and common  lands  for their  cattle  and flock. When the  price of wool went  up in the world  market, rich farmers wanted  to expand  wool production to earn profits. They were eager to improve their  sheep breeds and ensure  good pasture  for them.  They started enclosing large areas of land in compact blocks  to allow improved breeding. So they  began dividing and building hedges around  their  holdings  to separate  their  property from  that  of others.  They drove  out villagers from  the small cottages on the commons, and they  prevented the poor from  entering the enclosed  fields.

A labourer:    The Midlands  in England was most intensively cultivated region, and there  was a great demand  for agricultural labourers. Before the enclosure, labourers lived  with  their  landowners. They ate at the master's table, and helped  their  master  through the year, doing  a variety of odd jobs.  By 1800, this  practice  was disappearing. Labourers  were being  paid wages and employed only  during  harvest  time.  As landowners tried to increase  their  profits, they cut the amount they  paid to on their  workmen. Work became  insecure, employment uncertain, income  unstable. For a very  large part  of the year, the  poor had no work. 

A peasant woman: For peasant  women, the open field system  and the commons was a natural way of living  in communities wherein  resources  such as pasture, firewood and water  were shared  between  the rich and the poor. However, all these rights  for the commons vanished  once the open fields  were enclosed  by the rich farmers. The peasant  women  were reduced  to mere  labourers  in the properties of the rich  landowners.

2. Explain briefly the  factors which led to the enclosures in England.

Answer:

The factors  which  led to the enclosures in England were:

(i) The English population increased  from  7 million in 1750  to 21 million in 1850  and 30 million in 1900.  It resulted  in the  demand  for foodgrains to feed the population.

(ii)Britain at this  time  was witnessing rapid industrialisation. Many people  settled  and worked  in urban areas;  the urban  population increased  significantly in number. It resulted  in the  demand  for foodgrain in the market and increase  in the prices of essential commodities.

(iii)France's war with  England at the end of the eighteenth century  disrupted the import of foodgrains from  other  European  countries.

(iv) Increase in the prices of foodgrains in England encouraged landowners to enclose lands and enlarge  the area under  grain  cultivation.

(v)Profits flowed  in and landowners pressurised the Parliament to pass the Enclosure Acts.

3. Why were threshing machines opposed by the poor in England?

Answer:

Threshing  machines  were opposed  by the  poor in England because they  feared  that  these  machines  would  deprive them  of their  livelihood. They  were worried  that  with  the help of machines, the rich farmers and big landlords would encourage and intensify the enclosure of the commons.

Answer:

Captain  Swing  was a mythic  name  used in threatening letters, written by the  workmen against  the  use of threshing machines  by rich farmers. The name symbolised anger  of the  labourers; they  were deprived of their  livelihood by the use of threshing machines by big land owners.

5. What was  the  impact of the  westward expansion of settlers in the  USA?

Answer:

(i)After 1800  AD, the  US government committed itself  to a policy  of driving the American  Indians westward, beyond  the river  Mississippi, and then further west.

(ii)White Americans waged  wars with Indians and massacred  them; their  villages  were  burnt.  The Indians were forced to sign treaties to give up their  land and move  westward.

(iii)The white  Americans  settled  on the Appalachian plateau, and then moved  into  the Mississippi  valley between  1820  and 1850.

(iv)They slashed  and burnt forests, pulled  out the stumps, cleared  the  land for cultivation, and built  log cabins in the forest  clearings.

(v)Then they  cleared  larger  areas, and erected  fences around  the fields.  They ploughed  the land and sowed corn and wheat.

(vi)When the soil became  impoverished and exhausted in one place, the white  settlers would  move  further west, to explore  new lands and raise a new crop.

(vii)After the 1860s, the settlers swept  into  the Great Plains across the  River Mississippi.  Gradually, this  region became a major  wheat-producing area of America.

6. What were the  advantages and disadvantages of the  use of mechanical harvesting machines in the USA?

Answer:

The advantages of the use of mechanical harvesting machines  in the USA were:

(i)The  mechanical harvesting machine  could cut in one day as much  as five  men could cut with  cradles  and 16 men with  sickles.  With one of these  machines, 500 acres of wheat  field could be harvested in two  weeks.

(ii)The  big farmers of the Great Plains found  these machines  very  cost effective.

(iii)These new machines sped up the harvesting process to meet  the price of wheat  and high demand  in the market. They allowed  farmers to quickly  clear tracts, break  up the soil, remove  the grass and prepare the ground for cultivation.

(iv)The work could be done quickly with  a few workers. With power-driven machinery, four men could plough, seed and harvest 2,000  to 4,000  acres of wheat  in a season.

However, there  were some disadvantages faced by the poorer  farmers due to these  new machines:

(i)For  the poorer  farmers, machines  brought misery.

(ii)Many of them  bought  these machines when wheat prices were high.  They borrowed money  from  the banks.

(iii)When the prices  were very  low, they  found  it difficult to pay back their  debts.  Many deserted  their  farms  and looked for jobs  elsewhere.

7. What lessons  can we draw from the  conversion of the  countryside in the  USA from a bread basket to a dust  bowl?

Answer:

The expansion of wheat  agriculture with  new technology in Great Plains of the USA created  the Dust Bowl. The American  dream  of a land of plenty  had turned into  a nightmare.

The lesson we need to learn from  this is that  the  over exploitation of forest  resources  and cultivable land causes natural catastrophe. We must  understand that preservation of forests  and expansion of cultivable land should  be balanced.  The dust  bowl  serves as a caution against  the exploitation of nature  for surplus  production and commercial purposes.  Sustainable development  is possible only  by protecting the nature.

8. Write a paragraph on why the  British insisted on farmers growing opium in India.

Answer:

(i)The  British  insisted  on farmers growing opium  in India to meet  the demands  from  the Chinese market. Indian opium  was exchanged  with  Chinese  tea.

(ii)  In 1785, about  15 million pounds  of tea was being imported into  England and by 1830, the figure  increased to over  30 million  pounds.  In fact, the profits of the East India  Company  came to depend  on the tea trade.

(iii)To buy tea from  China, British  had to pay from  their treasure. They searched  for a commodity they  could exchange  for Chinese tea. Opium  was such a commodity.

(iv)  Opium  was used in China for its medicine, in less quantity. The Chinese were aware of harmful addiction  to it, and the Emperor  had forbidden its production.

(v)  However, Western  merchants in the  mid-eighteenth century  started an illegal  opium  trade, and by the early 1820s, about  10,000 crates  were annually smuggled into China. Fifteen  years  later, over  35,000  crates  were being unloaded  every  year.

(vi)To  continue the supply  of opium  to China, the British encouraged Indian farmers to grow  opium.

9. Why  were Indian farmers reluctant to grow opium?

Answer:

(i)After conquering Bengal, the  British  produced  opium  in the  lands under  their  control. As the market for opium expanded  in China, opium  was shipped  from  Bengal ports.

(ii)  Before 1767, no more  than  500 chests were being exported from  India. A hundred years  later, in 1870, the British  government was exporting about  50,000 chests annually.

(iii)Supplies had to be increased  to meet  this booming export  trade.  But many  cultivators were not ready  to grow  opium; they  were unwilling to use their  fields for poppy  cultivation. They wanted  to continue with  the cultivation of pulses.

(iv)  Many cultivators owned  no land. To cultivate, they had to pay rent  and lease land from  landlords; the rent charged  on good lands near villages  was very  high.

(v)The  cultivation of opium  was a difficult process. The plant  was delicate, and cultivators had to toil for long hours  nurturing it. They had to abandon  their  care for other  crops.