After the Repeal of the Corn-laws 6 1 



driven up above the economic level. Between 1860 and 1880 the 

 demand was such that "some people were foolish enough to take 

 farms at ridiculous rents 1 ." But of course the economic rent was 

 raised by the growing profits of agriculture. In the first thirty years 

 of free trade the rise was 10 per cent, according to Caird 1 , 25 per cent, 

 according to Sir Robert Giffen, who based his estimate on the figures 

 of Schedule B of the Income-Tax Returns. And there is no doubt 

 that in many cases rents were raised not only by this percentage, but 

 by 30 and even 50 per cent. 8 



Thus agriculture, and especially arable farming, experienced after 

 1846 such a period of prosperity as had not been anticipated even by 

 the most optimistic Free Traders. It is not wonderful, therefore, that 

 the expected reaction in regard of the size of holdings did not take 

 place. On the contrary, the " engrossing of farms," as the eighteenth 

 century had called it, reached its highest point at this time. 



(b) The Continued Extension of the Large Farm System. 



The extension of pasture-farming after 1846 was in no way opposed 

 to the further expansion of the large farm system, nor favourable to a 

 revival of small holdings. Corn-production, owing to the high prices 

 and the changes wrought by the application of an improved technique, 

 remained the most profitable branch of agriculture. The only differ- 

 ence was that it no longer played the sole part in the farmer's mind. 

 The rising price of meat made pasture-farming profitable too. But 

 the extension of the latter was not made at the cost of arable, nor 

 did it lead to consideration as to the unit of holding best suited for it. 

 It fell into line, so to say, with the predominant system of large arable 

 farms. All that happened was that the large farmer, instead of being 

 almost exclusively a corn-grower, as he had been from 1760 to 1850, 

 now combined corn-growing with stock-farming. This resulted, where 

 arable was the main interest, from the more intensive rotation of crops 

 generally introduced after 1846: so that between 1850 and 1880 

 pasture-farming came to be a necessary and lucrative supplement 



1 Report of 1894, Pt. II, qu. 25,173- 



3 Caird, Landed Interest, p. 157. Cp. also the description given by Noble, op. cit. 

 pp. 153 ff. 



3 Report on Agriculture, 1894, Vol. II, p. 623, qu. 18,163-18,171. According to the 

 evidence of a farmer named Cooper rents rose between 1865 and 1883 alone by 30 per 

 cent. See the Report of 1880, qu. 52,808 ff. ; also qu. 53,611, and the evidence of the 

 land-agent Squarey in the Report of 1894, qu. 7202. Another land-agent, Punchard, said 

 that between 1865 and 1880 rents had risen by 25 and even 50 per cent. Ibid., qu. 15,085 ff. 



