Innovativeness in agrarian civilisations: 15000 BC to AD 1800

This chapter illustrates the important effects resulting from the introduction of agriculture. Over time, farmers selected plants and animals which better possessed desired features. At the same time, humans domesticated both the plants and animals, and themselves. Demographic behaviour is an important driver of economic change. The traditional demographic regime was characterised by high birth and death rates, with intermittent crises caused by famine and epidemic disease. Agriculture sustained a more rapid rate of population growth than foraging did, but created a vulnerability to such intermittent crises. Innovation in agriculture caused population to rise, offsetting any previous increase in income levels. This is the Malthus trap, the most significant poverty trap in history, which masks the true innovativeness of humans. However, rising productivity in agriculture made possible an increasing urbanisation and commercialisation of the economy, reinforcing the breadth and density of interconnected webs of communication and commerce.