1 2 2 Histoiy of the English Landed Interest. 



During both Tudor and Stuarfc periods rents were considered 

 to be the one source of our national revenue. They were also 

 imagined to be a barometer of our national welfare. Thus, if 

 rents were high, we were prospering, — if the reverse, we were 

 languishing. Under this impression the mercantilist states- 

 men had helped the farmer, in order that by paying a higher 

 rent he might indirectly help the landlord to pay higher taxes. 

 The public favours bestowed on agriculture were not therefore 

 intended to promote the prosperity of the landlords, but of the 

 commercial interests ; and it was merely a lucky coincidence 

 for the landlords that their welfare was considered to be in- 

 separable from that of the community. 



Dr. Cunningham has very ably shown that though Parlia- 

 ment in these times was an assembly of landlords, their legis- 

 lation could never have been inspired by selfish aims. If 

 increased rents had not been commonly associated with in- 

 creased national prosperity, they would not have had the 

 effrontery to advertise their motives for each fresh enactment 

 by specific allusions in the Statute Book to the enhancement 

 of rents. By the mercantilists, the enclosure of commons, the 

 statutes against the importation of fresh cattle, and the facilities 

 for exporting corn were supposed to be indirectly promoting 

 trade, because they increased the value of land.^ "An in- 

 fallible sign," said Locke, " of your decay of wealth, is the 

 falling of rents, and the raising of them would be worth the 

 nation's care, for in that, and not in the falling of interest, 

 lies the true advantage of the landed man, and with him of 

 the public."^ 



But this is almost the last we hear of such a theory, for 

 with the permanent assessment of the Land Tax, and the 

 derivation of imposts from other sources besides the soil, the 

 landlord's prosperity became the reverse of popular with the 

 merchants. It is true that Adam Smith so far agreed with 

 Locke that he spoke of rent as follows : — Rent is increased by 

 every improvement in the circumstances of the community. 



^ Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Part II. pp. 192,238, etc. 

 W. Cunningham, D.D., 1892. 

 2 Considerations of the Loioering of Inter^est, 



