Introduction

This chapter sets out the motivation for a re-examination of the relationship between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors during the process of development. It then summarises the historical evidence concerning the development of agriculture both in eighteenth-century England and in Meiji Japan. and finds that it is in direct contrast to some of the major predictions of the dual economy models. The outline of an alternative framework is then put forward—a framework which has implications very different from those of the Lewis—and Harris-Todaro-type models.