128 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND, 



as the College pleased. The rent paid to New College is 14 

 in 1455, 14 IQS. in 1484, and 15 los. and a quarter of oats 

 in 1530. The estate is said to consist of 108 acres of arable, 

 44 of which have been composted by sheep. 



Now taking the average value of corn at the time, and the 

 value assigned by the schedule at the back of the roll to the 

 live stock, putting a price on the poultry which are not 

 assessed in the roll, and finally adding a sum to that part of 

 the dead stock which is not valued, it appears that an estate 

 is let at 14. per annum, with a stock which cannot be of 

 much less value than I have given it, viz. 76 js. $d., the 

 whole of which, too, plainly belongs to the landlord. The 

 rental paid on this land and stock farm is a little under 2s. $d. 

 per acre, and it may be observed that the same kind of 

 holding is continued on this estate up to 1530, for the roll 

 of that year expressly mentions that the tenant has met all his 

 liabilities, except the stock. At that time the rental is a little 

 under three shillings an acre. 



It is certain that at this time the rental of average arable 

 land did not exceed, as it did not in the fourteenth century, 

 sixpence an acre. It is probable that it might be even less, 

 for the cost of labour was certainly greater in the fifteenth 

 than it was in the fourteenth century, as the Commons com- 

 plain and the accounts demonstrate. The natural rent of 

 unstocked land in the farm on which I have been commenting 

 would have been 2 14.$-., and the College is therefore getting 

 11 6s. on a capital of j6 Js. $d., or nearly 15 per cent., for 

 the terms of the bargain are that both live and dead stock are 

 to be considered indestructible. 



My readers will note the curious fact to which I have already 

 referred, that the landlord in this stock and land lease stipu- 

 lates to insure his tenant against losses of the sheep by murrain 

 in case these losses exceed ten per cent, of the stock. Nor 

 was this a slight risk. In 1447 the College pays on twenty- 

 two wethers, twenty-four ewes, and seventeen hoggs, and in 

 the n xt on 92, 14, and 10. In 1452 it paid on 15, 25, and 6. 



