The English Capitalistic Farming and the Agricultural Gang System during the High-Farming

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the real condition of the Agricultural Gang System in England and thereby confirm the historical meaning of this system. This system was found in the eastern counties of England where the capitalistic farming made early progress. The distinctive feature of this system in so-called "the dual structure of employment", namely the gangmaster intervention into the contract relation between the employer and the employed. This feature was found particularly in the "public-gang", caused by the poor law or settlement law, and brought about various results, for instance the moral degradation or physical injury of the gangworker, the deduction from the gangworker's wage by the gangmaster and the low wage of the gangworker etc. Hitherto so-called "the dual structure of employment" has been understood as transitional structure. Therefore the Agricultural Gang System also began to disappear as transitional structure after sixties in the nineteenth century, immediately by the Agricultural Gangs Act (1867).