24 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



of the expenses of the repairs of these 

 permanent works by commissioners .ac- 

 cording to the value obtained by the 

 lands — an early instance of the imposition 

 of rates according to the principle of better- 

 ment. But on the whole, the works were 

 not sufficient, and were not well enough 

 kept up. 



At the beginning of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, however, greater powers were obtain- 

 able by law, by companies of adventurers, 

 for the reclamation of lands, so that they 

 could compel the owners to sell them the 

 lands they required for the construction 

 of their big drains and levels, just as 

 at present railways obtain powers of 

 compulsory purchases. 

 . As a rule, these enterprises were too 

 great to be undertaken by private people. 

 And even the companies at first often 

 failed to make a profit, and had to 



