FROM 1583 70 1702. 93 



accounted for. It is true that King makes the farmer's scale 

 of living the lowest in his schedule of productive labourers and 

 his saving power the least. I may add that if the farmers in 

 the list rented half the arable and pasture, their average 

 holding would have been 66-66 acres, the remuneration of the 

 farmer being according to King 42 los. a year. Such an in- 

 come indicates a very small amount of capital to the acre, even 

 if the amount covers all the farmer's outlay except the 

 maintenance of himself and his family. 



The estimate which King gives of the price of wheat in a 

 year of moderate plenty will not be found to be borne out by 

 the corn averages which I shall treat of in a subsequent 

 chapter. King makes it 35. 6d. a bushel, or 28.?. a quarter. 

 Now my average for the whole period before me, in which my 

 cheap years correct my dear years, the general result indicat- 

 ing very moderate plenty, is 39^. oj*/., or for the whole century, 

 1603-1702, 41 s., i.e. from 45. io\d. a bushel to $s. \\d. Of 

 course with such prices the power of the farmer to pay an 

 increased rent must have been enlarged. 



It would have been of great convenience to my enquiry if 

 Davenant or King had specified the periods at which the 

 doubling of rent between 1600 and 1700 had occurred. The 

 former states that this increase took place c by the help of that 

 wealth which has flowed in to us by our Foreign trade.' But 

 unless, as he hints is the case, the owner or purchaser of land 

 employed his newly-gotten wealth in materially improving his 

 estate, it is not easy to see how rents could have increased, 

 except by a disastrous competition on the part of the occu- 

 piers. That considerable improvements were made in the 

 cultivation of land, and in particular by constantly turning 

 common fields into severalty, is clear, if only by the discontent 

 the practice caused among the poorer commoners, discontent 

 occasionally breaking out into riot. Great works were under- 

 taken .it this time, as for instance the drainage of the Bedford 

 el and the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire fens, these 

 being carried out under Acts of Parliament. And I conceive 



