The Agriculture Act 1947 was an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

passed by

Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. He was Deputy Prime Mini ...

's post-war Labour government.

Background

The government wanted a positive

balance of payments In international economics, the balance of payments (also known as balance of international payments and abbreviated BOP or BoP) of a country is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time (e.g., a ...

, to lower the amount of food imported into Britain from dollar countries and to promote the maximum agricultural productivity.

Content

The Act gave farmers an assured market and guaranteed prices for their produce, the objective of this being, in the words of the

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

Tom Williams, "to promote a healthy and efficient agriculture capable of producing that part of the nation's food which is required from home sources at the lowest price consistent with the provision of adequate remuneration and decent living conditions for farmers and workers, with a reasonable return on capital invested".

Significance

The Act was a success: in 1938-1939 the output of agricultural machinery in Britain was valued at £2,500,000 (£1,400,000 of this was exports); in 1951 output was over £100,000,000, half of which was exported. In addition, the legislation provided farmers with a degree of prosperity and security not known since the mid-nineteenth century, and they benefited from the guaranteed price and annual price review introduced under the Act. Guaranteed markets also absorbed agriculture "into an effective system of economic planning".Morgan, p. 304.

Notes

References

*Kenneth O. Morgan, ''Labour in Power. 1945-1951'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984). *

Viscount Addison Viscount Addison, of Stallingborough in the County of Lincoln, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 6 July 1945 for the physician and politician Christopher Addison, 1st Baron Addison. He had already been created Ba ...

, ''How the Labour Party has saved Agriculture. The Story of Six Great Years'' (Labour Party Publications, 1951). {{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1947 Agriculture legislation in the United Kingdom