FIELD FOR CAPITAL AND LABOUR. 177 



To make good my proposition, I have only to set before 

 my readers a fair statement of the actual ; and in so doing 

 I may probably dispel many erroneous ideas as to the 

 ways and means of acquiring property and accumulating 

 wealth. 



So easy was it a few years ago to acquire property in 

 land at a nominal cost of 500/. to 800/. per square league ; 

 so trifling the price of sheep with which to stock it Sd. 

 to Is. each ; so wide the extent of land for them to 

 increase over ; so little the trouble or cost in minding 

 them as a rule, there was no direct outlay in so doing, 

 an interest being given to all comers in lieu of payment 

 that men, to use a figure of speech, went to sleep and 

 became rich by the natural accumulation of their stock. 

 But in addition to this, so rapid and great was the increase 

 in value of land and stock, that in eight or ten years, 

 through the increase and growing importance of the 

 produce of the stock, lands rose in value tenfold ; stock 

 likewise rose manyfold in value. It will appear as a 

 consequence that, through the accumulative increase of 

 the stock, its improved value, and the tenfold augmenta- 

 tion of the value of land, the parties who entered early 

 into the sheep-farming business had a concurrence of 

 extraordinarily advantageous circumstances, which made 

 their fortunes without any effort on their parts. This did 

 not alone extend to the land and stock-owners, but the 

 shepherds, who were paid their services by a half-share 

 in the increase of the flocks and half the wool, rapidly 

 acquired property, and many were enabled to purchase 

 land while it was yet at a low figure. 



The report of these extraordinary successes naturally 

 creates, at a distance especially, the impression that the 

 like is to be achieved now, that property can be acquired 

 without capital, and that the industrial classes can become 



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