50 LABOURERS' WAGES 



Owners, Farmers, and Labourers. 



Of the three classes affected by the dechne 

 of agriculture dealt with in previous chapters 

 — landowners, farmers, and labourers — the 

 last have emerged in the best condition, the 

 first in the worst. Upon this Mr. Hirst and 

 Mr. Prothero are agreed. Speaking of the 

 great fall in prices and the prolonged depres- 

 sion which set in after 1874, Mr. Hirst ob- 

 serves : — 



" The difficulty of meeting foreign compe- 

 tition had fallen heavily on both tenants and 

 owners of land. The smaller owner suffered 

 most of all because ... he had no hope of 

 meeting his losses either by a saving of rent 

 or out of his private means. . . . But in cases 

 where the owner was not the cultivator the 

 farmer was to some extent assisted by secur- 

 ing a reduction in rent. . . . The natural 

 tendency has been more and more to shift 

 the burden from the occupier back on to the 

 owner of the soil." 



The figures compiled by Mr. R. J. Thomp- 

 son show that rents rose in the prosperous 

 period from 1851 to the later seventies. 

 Wages were rising then, too ; prices were 

 high and profits good. All three classes 

 shared in the prosperity. But when the tide 

 turned, rents went down rapidly. The follow- 

 ing table gives Mr. Thompson's figures, which 

 are, unfortunately, only brought down to 1896: 



