History of Agricultural Rent in England 35 



greatly increased in the last twenty years 

 without any corresponding gain to agri- 

 culture. All these sources of increased 

 expense have diminished the surplus 

 available in the form of net rent. 



So far as the nineteenth century is 

 concerned, what I have described in general 

 language and in the roughest outline may 

 be read in the history of the great estate 

 by the Duke of Bedford. You have tables 

 from 18 16 to 1896 giving all the informa- 

 tion required to trace the changes in rents, 

 both the gross and the nominal rent, and 

 also the real net surplus — if any — for in the 

 end it seems to vanish entirely. 



I will give one or two significant 

 figures first about the gross rental 

 received. The average annual rental 

 (gross) received from 18 16 to 1835 

 (twenty years) was ;£"20,ooo ; from 1836 to 

 1845, it was about ;{f 24,000 ; in the next 



