Question

How did agricultural depression lead to job insecurity

Answer 1

(i) After the Napoleonic wars had ended, thousands of soldiers returned to their villages. They needed alternative jobs to survive. (ii) But this was time when grain from Europe began flowing into England, prices declined and an Agricultural Depression set in. (iii) Anxious landowners began reducing the area they cultivated and demanded that the imports of crops be stopped. (iv) They tried to cut wages and reduce the number of workmen they employed. (v) The unemployed poor tramped from village to village, and those with uncertain jobs lived in fear of a loss of their livelihood.