Agricultural Capital and Profits 57 



The tenant farmers wished to increase their 

 profits and the landowners their rents, and 

 the old method of cultivation in common 

 was a hindrance to both. At the same 

 time, the change in the relative values of 

 corn and wool naturally stimulated sheep 

 farming, and it was with the development 

 of this industry that land was enclosed, 

 common rights were taken away, and large 

 numbers of the rural population displaced. 

 It is remarkable that under these influences 

 the old system of cultivation in common 

 was not displaced to a much greater extent. 

 It is probable, however, that so late as 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century 

 three-fifths of the arable land of the country 

 was still cultivated in common, and the 

 second period of enclosures, which finally 

 got rid of the old system, extended from 

 1770 to the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 The aspect of the question z>., of the 



