The Danish Agro Machinery Industry in a Global Perspective, 1945-2005

摘要

Since the mid-nineteenth century, agriculture and the agro machinery industry has formed an integral part of the developed world, dominated by North America and Western Europe. After the Second World War, agricultural industrialization speeded up. Millions of small and mixed farms in the West disappeared to be replaced by large-scale and specialized farming. The technology needed to transform agriculture was supplied by an expanding agro machinery industry. As in other fields of industry, the agro machinery industry turned into an international business. By the turn of the twentieth century, farming and industry took an even bigger step as business and technology were being globalized. The agro machinery industry that served these global markets remained in the West, however. Eventually, transatlantic mergers consolidated firms into industries for plant, dairy and pig and poultry farming equipment. This article discusses how the Danish agro machinery increasingly became an integrated part of international and global developments.