Article ID: CBB095735427

Reclaiming a New World: Fen Drainage, Improvement, and Projectors in Seventeenth-Century England (2016)

unapi

The draining of the English Fens was one of the largest and most expensive agricultural improvement projects undertaken in early-modern England. Though the principal motivation was to make money from the improved land, many advocates of fen drainage emphasized the moral, utopian dimension of such projects, part of a much broader program for improvement and reform of all kinds to benefit the English Commonwealth. To those interested in pursuing good husbandry and agricultural improvement for their own sake, the Fens represented an unparalleled opportunity, a region of great potential yet unrealized. This article examines several texts advocating fen drainage written between 1580 and 1660, especially those published by Samuel Hartlib and his extensive network of correspondents, with particular attention to the non-financial reasons they gave for undertaking such projects.

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Authors & Contributors
Keller, Vera A.
Morgan, John Emrys
Rodrigues, Ana Duarte
Andrews, Noam
Toribio, Carmen
Daybell, James
Concepts
Correspondence and corresponding
Science and society
Drainage; irrigation
Alchemy
Notebooks
Occult sciences
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
18th century
Renaissance
Early modern
19th century
Places
England
Germany
Dublin (Ireland)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Spain
Portugal
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin Philosophical Society
Habsburg, House of
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