AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS IN 1696 145 



\ 

 ments. On the eve of this change, it may be of interest to 

 note a contemporary estimate of the agricultural population 

 and wealth of the country at the close of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. 



Gregory King, whose training and experience specially qualified 

 him for the task, drew up a statistical account of the " State and 

 Condition " of England and Wales in 1696. His estimates of the 

 actual numbers of the population are the result of an investigation 

 by a competent and careful observer, who made the fullest use of 

 the information suppHed by such figures as those contained in the 

 Hearth-office, the assessments on Births, Marriages, and Burials, 

 the Parish Registers, and PubHc Accounts. The substantial 

 accuracy of this part of his work has stood the test of subsequent 

 criticism, in spite of his prophecy that in 1900 the population 

 would have risen to 7,350,000. For the rest of his estimates he 

 mainly depended on guess-work. Confidence is scarcely created by 

 his laborious calculation of the numbers of hares, rabbits, and 

 wild fowl in the country. King's figures were largely used by 

 Davenant,^ but his actual manuscript remained impublished till 

 1801.2 



King estimated the total acreage of England and Wales at 39 

 milhon ^ acres ; of which 11 million acres were arable, averaging 

 a yearly rent per acre of os. lOd. ; and 10 milhon were meadow or 

 pasture, averaging 9s. an acre. Of the 11 million arable acres, ten 

 milhon were under the plough for corn, pease, beans, and vetches ; 

 one milHon acres were allotted to flax, hemp, saffron, woad and 

 other dyeing weeds, etc. He goes on to calculate the hve-stock of 

 the country thus : " horses (and asses)," 600,000 ; cattle, 4| miUion ; 

 sheep, 11 miUion ; pigs, 2 million. The total population in 1696 

 is estimated at 5,500,000 persons, distributed into 1,400,000 urban, 

 and 4,100,000 rural, inhabitants. The total yearly income of the 

 nation m 1688 is calculated at £43,500,000. Of this total, con- 



^ An Essay upon the Probable Methods of making a People Gainers in 

 the Ballance of Trade, by Charles Davenant, 1698 (Section I. " Of the 

 People of England," and Section II. " Of the Land of England and its 

 Product "). 



^ Pubhshed in An Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Great Britain, by 

 George Chalmers (1802), under the title of "Natural and Political Observa- 

 tions and Conclusions upon the State and Condition of England, 1696 ; by 

 Gregory King, Esq., Lancaster Herald." 



* The actual figure is 37,319,221 acres. 



K 



