Clearing new agricultural land in America or Australia was not enough on its own to feed the growing British…

Question

Clearing new agricultural land in America or Australia was not enough on its own to feed the growing British demand for food. What additional infrastructure and human inputs were necessary, and why did each of them also require capital and labour?

Accepted Answer

## Model Answer Clearing land alone was insufficient. **Railways** were needed to connect agricultural regions to ports — building them required massive capital investment and thousands of labourers. **New or expanded harbours** were needed to handle increased cargo, again demanding engineering work, capital, and workers. **Human settlements** — homes and towns — had to be built for people to live on and cultivate the land. Since labour was scarce in America and Australia, workers had to **migrate** from Europe, which itself required financing. Capital flowed from financial centres like London to fund all these activities. *Source: Chapter 3, Section 2.1 — A World Economy Takes Shape* --- ## Explanation The examiner wants three clear infrastructure/input points, each linked to capital and labour. The passage explicitly lists railways, harbours, and settlements — use all three. Note that migration is the labour solution, and London is the capital source. Avoid padding; one crisp senten…

Social Science (087) — AI-generated practice question