The Organisation of the Industr\). 7 



use of all this capital at the moderate rate of interest which 

 is represented by the rent." There is no historical 

 justification for this claim. Caird estimated in 1878, and 

 his fig-ures have generally been accepted, that the rent of 

 cultivated land per acre in 1770 was 13/-; in 1850, 27/-; 

 and in 1878, 30/-. In" Progress of the Nation " (Porter 

 and Hirst, 1912, p. 119) figures are quoted based on 

 returns for 132,000 acres up to 1871, and 400,000 acres 

 after that date : 



Professor Nicholson writes: — "It is no doubt true 

 that at the end of the i8th century and at the beginning 

 of the 19th the very great rise that took place in rents, 

 sometimes fivefold, was not due entirely to improvements 

 and the increase of produce." Lord Ernie's book, already 

 quoted, may be consulted to srow that other causes than 

 the improvements effected by the expenditure of the land- 

 lords' capital on land operated to produce an increase of 

 rent. Dealing with the increase in the value of land 

 between 1857 and 1875, Caird in " Landed Interest " (p. 

 98) says : — " This vast increase in the value of landed 

 property within the short period of twenty years is very 

 remarkable. It has been already shown that the improve- 

 ment expenditure effected by loans has been fifteen 



