136 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



light on many incidents in the last century, the 

 true meaning of which would otherwise be difficult to 

 grasp. 



Between the employers and labourers, however, the 

 system has never worked smoothly, since it created at 

 the base of the social structure a mass of impoverished 

 and discontented men, the ' labouring poor ' as they 

 were called, who seem from the very beginning to have 

 bitterly resented their subservient position. This dis- 

 content made itself conspicuous in the riots and risings 

 that occurred in the year 1830, and later on in the 

 great Agricultural Labourers' Trade Union movement, 

 which, founded in 1872, was carried on for some years 

 under the direction of Joseph Arch. 



The conditions of agriculture varied greatly from 



time to time during the century. In the first 



fifteen years, owing to the Napoleonic 



Agricultural Wars and the stringent character of the 

 conditions / , 1 



in outline. corn ^ aws f tne time > wheat averaged 

 about 855. a quarter and sometimes almost 

 doubled that price ; at the same time there was a 

 high price for stock. As a result farmers flourished 

 and landlords secured high rents, whilst labourers 

 eked out their miserable wages by allowances under 

 the Speenhamland regulations, which they supplemented 

 by poaching and stealing. Enclosures by statute and 

 by appropriation continued rapidly. There was a rush 

 to buy land. Speculation was widespread. Many of 

 the remaining peasant proprietors sold out, whilst 

 others borrowed on mortgage and bought more land 

 and sometimes lost all. The prosperous times came 

 to an end in 1816, the 'black year,' which gave one of 

 the worst harvests ever known. Subsequently, owing in 



