156 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



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

 the population being 5^ millions ^ : — 

 No. of 



Yeomen \ 



families 



in class. 



160 



800 



600 



3,000 



11,000 



2,000 



8,000 



10,000 



2,000 



8,000 



40,000 



20,000 



120,000 



50,000 



60,000 



364,000 



Class. 



Income. 



400,000 



Temporal lords . 

 Baronets 

 Knights 

 Esquires 

 Gentlemen . 

 Eminent merchants 

 Lesser merchants 

 Lawyers 



Eminent clergy . 

 Lesser clergy 



Freeholders of the better sort 

 Freeholders of the lesser sort 

 (Tenant) farmers 

 Shopkeepers and tradesmen 

 Artisans .... 

 Labouring people and out- 

 servants .... 

 Cottagers and paupers 



He calculated that the freeholder of the better sort saved 

 on an average ;^8 i^s. od. a year per family of 7 ; and the 

 lesser sort £2 i^s. od. a year with a family of 5I. 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 75-., and cottagers and paupers 

 with families of ^\ (also an under estimate) lost i6s. o^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 



^ 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. 



