Editing Threshing machine (section)

== Early social impacts ==

[[File:Batteuse 1881.jpg|thumb|Threshing machine from 1881]]

The [[Swing Riots]] in the UK were partly a result of the threshing machine. Following years of war, high taxes and low wages, farm labourers finally [[revolt]]ed in 1830. They had faced unemployment for years, due to the widespread introduction of the threshing machine and the policy of [[enclosure |enclosing]] fields. No longer were thousands of men needed to tend the crops; a few would suffice. With fewer jobs, lower wages and no prospects, the threshing machine was the final straw; it would place them on the brink of starvation. The Swing Rioters smashed threshing machines and threatened farmers who had them. The riots were dealt with very harshly. Nine of the rioters were hanged and a further 450 were [[Penal transportation |transported]] to [[Australia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Caprettini |first1=Bruno |last2=Voth |first2=Hans-Joachim |title=Rage against the Machines: Labor-Saving Technology and Unrest in Industrializing England |journal=[[American Economic Review]]: Insights |year=2020 |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=305–320 |doi=10.1257/aeri.20190385 |s2cid=234622559 |doi-access=free|url=https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190376/1/swing.pdf }}</ref>