744 ON THE PROFITS OF AGRICULTURE. 



would do far better without. The Dutch were quick at dis- 

 covering this in the course of their long war with Spain, and 

 adopted excise regulations. The Parliamentary party soon 

 saw that the effective but costly army which Cromwell col- 

 lected and trained would be starved on direct taxation, but 

 would be easily maintained on an excise to which persons 

 would seem to contribute voluntarily. Still, I have very little 

 doubt that Charles owed his restoration much more to the 

 costliness of the Protector's army, and to a searching and 

 vexatious excise, than he did to a revived loyalty. Of this 

 I am sure, that, till some distance into the seventeenth century, 

 England was not possessed of a mercantile marine, which, as 

 compared with that of other European nations, was nearly 

 equal to that commercial navy which she had in the first half 

 of the fifteenth century, when she claimed and exercised the 

 sovereignty of the narrow seas, a sovereignty which, two cen- 

 turies later, Selden reasserted in theory. 



I shall now attempt, though with some hesitation, the ex- 

 periment of constructing, from the evidence given of the seed 

 and harvest account for four years of the manor of Cuxham, in 

 Oxfordshire, between 1333-6 inclusive (Vol. I, pp. 38-45), and 

 from the profit and loss account of 1332, what was the position 

 of a farmer of the same estate (as far as expenses are con- 

 cerned, and on the hypothesis of similar sales to those effected 

 in the last-named year) in the decennial period of 1561-70. My 

 inferences are hypothetical, except that prices are recorded, and 

 that the state of agriculture was manifestly stationary. The 

 prices are extracted from the various tables for the decennial 

 period in question, as far as materials, produce, and labour are 

 concerned. 



The average extent of land under cultivation at Cuxham, in 

 the four years of the fourteenth century, is 181 acres. Half 

 as much was probably in fallow, both then and in 1571-80. 

 Of these acres, the average in the four years, omitting fractions, 

 is 87 wheat, 9 barley, 26 drage, 52 oats, 13 peas and vetches. 

 The produce, on an average of four years, is a little over two 



