92 DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH IN ENGLAND 



that the labour of those on whom the rest of society depended 

 had such a scanty share in the division of the produce. 

 The accumulation of wealth was the only matter which 

 interested them, and the family which could not save was 

 treated as an unproductive consumer, or in King's phrase, one 

 who decreased the wealth of the kingdom, or in Davenant's 

 language, was a burden to the public, for he dwells on the 

 fact that the majority of the people depend on and subsist by 

 the minority, ' 500,000 families contributing to. the support of 

 850,000 families 1 .' 



King estimated the arable land in England and Wales at 

 nine million acres, at a rent of 5^. 6d. ; twelve millions of pasture 

 and meadow, at Ss. $>d. ; three millions of woods and coppices, 

 at 5^. ; three millions of forests and parks, at 3^. 8d. ; ten 

 millions of barren land, at is. ; one million occupied by 

 houses, gardens, orchards, churches and churchyards, and 

 another million under water or devoted to roads. The whole 

 rental of the country he puts at twelve millions. He reckons 

 the corn produced annually at ninety million bushels, or rather 

 more than an average of eleven bushels an acre, ' in a year of 

 moderate plenty/ when the value would be 1 1,338,600. The 

 rest of the annual produce of land is put down at twelve 

 millions, the value of the live stock at ; 18,28 7,633, and of 

 minor products nearly three millions more. 



Davenant states as an unquestionable fact that rents had 

 more than doubled between 1600 and the time at which he 

 was writing (1699). It seems to me that the average rent 

 which he gives of arable land is too high, for nearly at this 

 time the Belvoir estate was let at an average of 4s. \\d., and the 

 land included in this estate is certainly above the average 

 quality. It is not easy to see, moreover, how land which 

 produced on an average not more than 25^. $d. worth of corn, 

 from which had to be deducted tithe and seed corn, could 

 bear a rent of 5.$-. 6d. after the charges of cultivation are 



1 We must remember that in 1685, 554>^3i houses had only one hearth. 

 Davenant, ii. 203. 



