Social and Political Aspects 1 1 5 



hand in hand with that sharper definition of class distinctions at which 

 the social reformers of the eighteenth century were so much concerned. 

 Further, the rural exodus resulted largely from the swamping of the 

 agricultural labour-market, and this from the large farm system, which 

 did not develop a sufficient demand for labour to employ all the 

 newly-created proletariat. This over-supply of labour reached its 

 culminating point under the corn-laws, which diminished the indus- 

 trial demand for labour and as it were slammed the gates of the 

 towns in the labourer's face. He was now obliged to stay on the land 

 whether he liked it or not Young's theory was proved false; the 

 large farm system could not even approximately employ, under any- 

 thing like decent conditions, the crowds of labourers it created. Free 

 trade at last brought salvation, by giving a new impetus to industry 

 and so opening up again the way from the land to the town. 

 Labourers streamed in crowds into industrial employments, and 

 the agricultural labour-market was at last disburdened. Wages and 

 the whole standard of life went up for those labourers who remained 

 on the land 1 . The effect of the large farm system had thus been to 

 create an over-supply of labour, larger and increasing more rapidly 

 than the agricultural demand could suffice to take up. Only two 

 results were possible. The population might, for whatever reasons, 

 remain on the land, and if so, wages must fall. This actually happened 

 in the corn-law period. Or on the other hand migration might increase, 

 as was the case after 1846. Accordingly the rural exodus has been 

 to a very great extent a consequence of the large farm system. Trade 

 and industry developed a growing demand for labour, and the rural 

 population, bound by no ties to the soil, went where the best chances 

 were offered it. The large farm system did not of course create the 

 rural exodus, but it essentially strengthened the tendency. 



The number of agricultural labourers (shepherds included) fell 

 from 1,253,786 in 1851 to 621,168 in 1901, or by more than 50 per 

 cent. This decrease has been explained by the development of 

 pasture-farming and the use of agricultural machinery, which, it is 

 said, between them rendered many labourers superfluous and so 

 caused the depopulation of the land. They had of course their 

 share in the movement, especially in certain districts. But they 

 cannot be said to have caused it, for both arable and dairy-farming 

 districts were left crying out for labour. The demand had not indeed 



1 See the detailed description in Wilson Fox, Agricultural Wages, in Journal R. Statistical 

 Soc,, 1903. Also H. Levy, Landarbeiterfrage und Landfittcht in England, in Brauns 

 Archiv, 1903, pp. 497 ff. 



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