248 History of the English Landed Interest. 



The scarcity of rural labour, and the high rate of wages, all 

 labour statutes notwithstanding, forced landlords to let rather 

 than cultivate their lands. In vain companies, colleges, cor- 

 porations, and monastic houses sought to succeed where the 

 great landlords were faihng every day. By the end of the 

 fifteenth century a large portion of England's soil, if we except 

 the manorial home farms, was in the hands of the capitahst 

 farmer, and the landlord had about as little interest in his 

 tenant's welfare, as has the consumer in that of the producer 

 in any other industry. 



