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CHAPTER VIII. 



LARGE FARMS AND LARGE CAPITALISTS — MR. COKE OF 

 HOLKHAM. 



A LARGE expenclittire of capital was needed to bring into 

 cultivation the newly reclaimed commons or the barbarously 

 cropped and impoverished open fields. But in order to 

 derive full profit from the outlay it was necessary to obtain 

 access to the new markets. Agriculture and manufacture 

 agreed in demanding increased facilities of transport and 

 communication. The demand created the supply. Hitherto 

 the charges for the conveyance of heavy goods had been 

 practically prohibitive. Except in the summer, farmers 

 were confined to the nearest markets and deprived of the 

 stimulus of competition. The impassable condition of the 

 roads led to the widest differences in the prices of neigh- 

 bouring districts. Meat varied with the distance from 

 London ; within fifty miles of the capital it was 4d., beyond 

 that limit 2d. ; as the distance increased prices fell, and 

 farmers at Horsham were glad to take five farthings a 

 pound for mutton. Food rotted upon the ground in one 

 parish, while in the next there was a scarcity. The corn- 

 law legislation of the eighteenth century provided for varia- 

 tions of prices in twelve different districts of England and 

 Wales. Between 1760 and 1780 all the main roads were 

 repaired, while Brindley's construction of the Bridgewater 

 Canal established a canal mania, only paralleled by the 

 railway mania of this century. Within a few years 



