146 LATER STEWARTS AND THE REVOLUTION 



siderably more than half (£24,480,000) belonged to the following 

 families : 



40,000 Freeholders ^ of the better sort 

 140,000 Freeholders of the lesser sort - 

 150,000 Farmers ----- 

 364,000 Labouring People and Out-servants 

 400,000 Cottagers and Paupers 



King's estimates bring into strong relief the vast revolution 

 which the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries produced in the dis- 

 tribution of population and of wealth. The same point is illustrated 

 from a different point of view by a comparison of the wealth of the 

 different counties in 1696 and at the present day. Material for 

 such a comparison is found in the frequent assessments which were 

 made of the counties during the seventeenth century for various 

 fiscal purposes. The central counties are the richest ; then follow 

 in order of wealth the south, the east, the west. Poorest of all is 

 the north. Throughout the whole period, Middlesex is the richest 

 and Cumberland the poorest county. The most conspicuous change 

 was that of Surrey, \\'hich rose from the eighteenth place in 1636 to 

 the second in 1693. Excluding Middlesex, and excepting Surrey, 

 the wealthiest district throughout the whole period was formed by 

 a block of six agricultural counties north of the Thames — namely 

 Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxford- 

 shire, and Northamptonshire. Their position illustrates the im- 

 portance of London as a market for agricultural produce. Already 

 its rapid growth was exciting alarm, lest " the Head " should become 

 " too big for the Body." According to Gregory King, its popula- 

 tion was 530,000 souls out of an urban population of 1,400,000, and 

 a total population, urban and rural, of 5| milHons. Throughout 

 the whole period, again, the seven poorest counties, though their 

 order in the list varies, were Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, 

 Lancashire, Northumberland, Durham, and Cumberland. The 

 assessment of the whole district north of the Humber, comprising 

 one-fifth of the total area of England, A^as not greater than that of 



^ It should be noted that freeholders included not only owners and occupy- 

 ing owners, but tenants for life and lives, as well as copyholders. 



* For tables of estimates drawn up by King and Davenant, see Appendix 

 IV. 



