Why did the farm labourers in England destroy the threshing machines?
During the Napoleonic wars, prices of food grains became high and farmers expanded their production largely. The rich farmers began buying new threshing machines. They wanted to reduce their dependence on farm labourers due to their rude attitude and drinking habits. The threshing machines could do the work of more than 20 labourers at a time. Buying of machines reduced the employment of farm labourers due to which they opposed its use by rich farmers.
Another cause was huge inflow of soldiers after the Napoleonic war ended, they needed alternative jobs to survive. All these factors made the situation more worse for the labourers. The labourer began to visit village after village and started to destroy the threshing machines as they thought the machine was the root cause of their misery. This was known as Captain Swing riots.