Was the British Industrial Revolution as much an agricultural revolution as it was a technological revolution?

Answer 1

Not at first. Agriculture may have contributed by facilitating capital accumulation, though its role is debated. It certainly helped later by feeding the growing urban workforce, though food imports increased hugely in the 19th century. Increased agricultural incomes also contributed to the growth of the domestic market, offsetting low industrial wages in the 1800s-30s, and may have stimulated initial labour-saving mechanisation in industry by maintaining wages in the 1760s-90s. But the Industrial Revolution was otherwise initially technology-driven, unlike the improvements in agriculture which had been ones of technique.