156 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



expenditure of the 'several families' in England in 1688, 

 the population being 5^ millions l : 



No, of 



families Class. Income, 

 in class. 



160 Temporal lords . . . ,3,200 o o 



800 Baronets .... 880 o o 



600 Knights .... 650 o o 



3,000 Esquires .... 450 o o 



11,000 Gentlemen .... 280 o o 



2,000 Eminent merchants . . 400 o o 



8,000 Lesser merchants . . 198 o o 



10,000 Lawyers . . . . 154 o o 



2,000 Eminent clergy . . . 72 o o 



8,000 Lesser clergy . . . 50 o o 



f 40,000 Freeholders of the better sort 91 o o 



Yeomen \ r-i.ijr.i-i 



I 120,000 Freeholders of the lesser sort 55 o o 



120,000 (Tenant) farmers . . 42 10 o 



50,000 Shopkeepers and tradesmen 45 o o 



60,000 Artisans . . . . 38 o o 



364,000 Labouring people and out- 

 servants . . . . 15 o o 



400,000 Cottagers and paupers . 6 10 o 



He calculated that the freeholder of the better sort saved 

 on an average 8 15^. vd. a year per family of 7 ; and the 

 lesser sort 2 i$s. od. a year with a family of 5^. The 

 tenant farmer with a family of 5, only saved 2^s. a year, 

 while labouring families who, he said, averaged 3^ (certainly an 

 under estimate), lost annually 7^., and cottagers and paupers 

 with families of 3^ (also an under estimate) lost \6s. $d. 

 a year. It will thus be seen that the tenant farmers, 

 labourers, and cottagers, the bulk of those who worked on 

 the land, were very badly off; the tenant farmer saved con- 

 siderably less than the artisan. It will also be noticed that ] 

 the rural population of England was about three-quarters of 

 the whole. 2 



1 Eden, State of the. Poor, i. 228. 



* If we allow that most of the two last classes enumerated were country 

 folk. For the decline of the yeoman class, see chap, xviii. 



