DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN ENGLAND 309 



The writer has not found evidence showing any great progress 

 in this direction until later in the eighteenth century, but there 

 is reason for believing that Laurence's advice was acted upon 

 many times during the next sixty years. In 1786 Marshall 

 records in detail an inclosure where the proceedings seem to have 

 been in exact accordance with this advice. 1 



Contemporaneous with the new agriculture, and perhaps it 

 is not too much to say making the new agriculture necessary 

 and possible, was the enormous growth of English manufactures 

 and commerce. These lines of development greatly increased 

 the demand for agricultural products so that by the end of the 

 eighteenth century the price of such products had greatly risen. 

 The high prices which could be obtained for the products of the 

 farm gave high values to land and made larger farms and 

 intensive culture, extremely profitable. It required a great deal 

 of capital to stock a large farm and cultivate it in accordance 

 with the new methods. To own both land and capital required 

 relatively great wealth; and the rural economists of the time 

 advised farmers to use their capital in stocking large farms 

 rather than to invest nearly all they had in buying land, in 

 which case the farms would be too small and too poorly stocked 

 to be most profitable. It came to be the argument that, whereas 

 a farmer could realize no more than 3 per cent on investments 



1 "In the parish of Felbrigg, in Norfolk, some seven or eight years ago, Mr. 

 Wyndham, who is Lord of the Manor, was also the sole proprietor in this parish, 

 excepting one small farm, of seventy pounds a year, belonging to a young man, a 

 yeoman, just come of age. An extensive, heathy waste, and some common-field 

 lands, were desirable objects of inclosures; consequently, the possession of this 

 young man's estate became an object of importance to Mr. Wyndham. Steps 

 were accordingly taken towards obtaining the desired possession; not, however, 

 by threats and subterfuges, too commonly but very impolitically made use of upon 

 such occasions; but by open and liberal proposals to the young man, the joint 

 proprietor; who was made fully acquainted with the intention; and frankly told 

 that nothing could be done without his estate. He was, therefore, offered, at once, 

 a specific and considerable sum, over and above its full value to any other person ; 

 and, to insure the object in view, he had, at the same tune, an offer made him of a 

 considerable farm, on advantageous terms. The young man being enterprising, 

 and his little estate being, I believe, somewhat encumbered, accepted the offer, 

 sold his estate, and agreed for a farm, consisting partly of old inclosures, hi part of 

 common-field land, and in a still greater proportion of the heath to be inclosed." 



