RESULTS OF AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS 349 



valuable though they were, they were becoming commercially di s- 

 credited . Their diaappeaipnce was a sociaHpss ; but it had become 

 an economic necfissit y. The land could no longer be cultivated for 

 the needs of a scanty, scattered j)opulation, occupied in the tillage 

 of the soil, or engaged in one-man handicrafts. So long as England 

 depended for food on her own produce, — a condition which lasted 

 a quarter of a century after the repeal of the Corn Laws, — it was 

 requisite that farming should be transformed from a self-sufficing 

 domestic industry into a profit-earning manufactory of bread, beef, 

 and mutton. Eloocl, upon the scale that changed conditions 

 demanded, could_only be produced upon land which had been 

 prepajed^for the purp ose by the outlay of capijialist landlords and . 

 the intelhgent eriterprise of large tena nt-fa rmers. 



In other respects, also, the distress of 1813-37 produced good 

 results. So long as war prices prevailed, prosperous years had 

 brought wealth to slovens, and sluggards had amassed riches in their j 

 sleep. The collapse of ^prosperity spurred the energies and enter- f 

 prise of both landloj;ds and tenants, who could only hold their own . 

 by economising the cost and increasing the amount of production/ | 

 Within certain limits, low prices^ and keen competition compelled' 

 improvement. Again, though the attraction of war-prices had 

 driven the plough through much valuable pasture, it had also supplied 

 the incentive which added hundreds of thousands of acres of Avastes 

 to the cultivated area of the country. Finally, during the era ^f 

 Protficiion, la ndlords and far mers had learned _tQ-rely- too entirely 

 upon Parliarnentary Jielp in their difficulties. They had been prone 

 to expect that alterations in the protective duties would turn the 

 balance between the success and failure of their harvests. Now, 

 disappointment after disappointment had taught them the useful 

 lesson that they could expect no immediate assistance from legis- 

 ■ lative interference, and that, if they wanted aid, they must help 

 themselves. ''' 



Meanwhile legislation had been active in many useful directions. 

 The agricultural revolution, and the effects ahke of war and peace, 

 had completely disorganised the labour market. Parhament co- 

 operated with industrial changes in redressing the balance between 

 demand and supply and in adapting the relations of capital and 

 labour to new conditions. For agricultural labourers the Poor-Law of 

 J834 did. what the Factory legislation of 1833 had done for artisans. 

 The change produced immediate efifect. The number of paupers 



