2O2 Large and Small Holdings 



same effect as wars and bad harvests, drove up corn-prices : and the 

 small holding was swallowed up by the large farm. Landlords 

 threw small holdings together to form large ones. Large farmers 

 took the place of the little farmers and cottiers. The small yeomen 

 sold their land in order to become large farmers. The commons, 

 which had been the backbone of the economy of many small holders, 

 were everywhere divided and turned into a few large farms. This 

 development continued till about the end of the third quarter of the 

 nineteenth century. The market conditions and with them the 

 conditions of production were indeed changed to some extent in 1846. 

 England then ceased to attempt to provide for her growing population 

 almost exclusively with home-grown corn. Free Trade opened the 

 long-closed door to foreign imports. The English people now had 

 the advantage of obtaining its bread at the price current in the 

 international market. But this price did not fall to any considerable 

 extent in the first thirty years of Free Trade, so that the advantage 

 so far only amounted to the fact that the growing population 

 continued to be fed at the same and not at a growing price. This 

 meant a good deal, however, to a country where, in consequence of 

 its corn-law policy, price had hitherto increased along with popula- 

 tion. Prices remaining the same, corn-growing was still profitable ; 

 while as the standard of comfort rose, the consumption of meat 

 increased and stock-farming came to be of more importance. In the 

 result, corn-production reached a still higher standard, being combined 

 with cattle-farming and consequently with an improved rotation of 

 crops, but remaining the backbone of the system, and therefore still 

 leading to the extension of the large holding. 



At the end of the seventies came the turn of the tide. Improved 

 means of communication, together with the bringing into cultivation 

 of virgin soils of unlimited extent and great fertility, led to a fall in 

 the price of corn in the world-market. The market for agricultural 

 products accordingly underwent a great change. The English people 

 was in a position to satisfy its demand for its most important article 

 of food at a constantly decreasing price by means of foreign imports. 

 That part of the national labour-power which had hitherto been 

 devoted to the production of grain now streamed into other employ- 

 ments, in so far as it could no longer produce corn at a price to 

 compete with that imported from abroad. This branch of agriculture 

 was now increasingly unprofitable. But in proportion as the market 

 for corn deteriorated, that for all other agricultural products improved. 

 The less the mass of the people were forced to spend on their bread, 



