VI OF THE SMALL LANDOWNER 117 



expressed by contemporaries. In some districts they were 

 still protected by the existence of the commonable field, 

 which made their properties not very saleable ; in some the 

 high prices induced them not only to retain their properties 

 but to buy. Elsewhere they found themselves in the same 

 straits as the small farmer, and realized the truth of 

 A. Young's statement that to farm a small property as 

 owner instead of renting a larger one from another person 

 was unprofitable. 1 But a good price could be got for the 

 land, and with the purchase-money they could rent a large 

 farm and join the ranks of the capitalist farmers who gave 

 themselves such airs. 2 Others, with the capital thus raised, 

 could start a new career in the colonial or industrial world. 

 Many of the bolder and more able of them did this. 

 Witness the names of the Peels, the Fieldens, the 

 Arkwrights, and many others 3 who, starting from the 

 position of yeomen, became famous manufacturers, and 

 having made a fortune once more returned to the land no 

 longer as yeomen but as large landowners. 



This tendency on the part of the small owner to sell for 

 the purpose of using his capital to greater profit elsewhere 

 : 'is well illustrated in Canada of to-day. I am informed 

 that it is a common thing for an owner of a farm in the 



1 Quoted, Levy, p. 41. Cf. Adain Smith, Wealth of Nations, bk. iii, 

 c. 4 : 'A young man who instead of applying to trade or some profes- 

 sion his capital of two or three thousand pounds in purchase and 

 cultivation of a small piece of land . . . must bid adieu for ever to all 

 hope of ... a great fortune.' 



8 Report Royal Commission, 1882, ono witness said he much 

 preferred being a tenant than an owner. In Cheshire I am told 

 that it is not uncommon to-day for yeomen to let their own farms, 

 no doubt at a high rent, and lease a farm themselves from a rich and 

 therefore more generous landlord. 



3 Mantoux has collected the names of at least seventeen, p. 381 ; 

 cf. Holt, Lancashire, who says yeomen had greatly diminished of late 

 and gone into trade ; Holland says the same of Cheshire, though he 

 adds that their places had been taken by other small proprietors. 



