CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 



THE HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL RENT IN ENGLAND 



PAGE 



In the early mediceval period no sharp distinction between rents, 

 wages and profits — Labour Rents — the typical naanor and 

 serfdom — break-up of the manorial system — the emergence 

 of the tenant farmer and the yeoman — the enclosures for 

 sheep farming and rural depopulation in the sixteenth 

 century — improvements in agriculture by the landowners 

 in the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, and the 

 rise in rent — further rise in rent during the great war — 

 survey of the course of rent in the nineteenth century — 

 serious fall since 1878 — the example of the Duke of Bed- 

 ford's estates — general conclusion of the effects of economic 

 progress on agricultural rents in England . . . i 



CHAPTER n 



AGRICULTURAL CAPITAL AND PROFITS 



In the early mediaeval period the value of the stock, live and 

 dead, on agricultural land three times the capital value of 

 the land itself— large farming under bailiff supervision with 

 forced labour — effects of the Black Death — the landlords' 

 remedy — examination of the land and stock lease — the 

 enclosures and sonvertible husbandry in the sixteenth 

 century — the profits of tenant farming in the seventeenth 

 and eighteenth centuries — the relations of landlord and 

 tenant — the views of Rogers and Adam Smith compared 

 on the security of the tenant's capital — high profits of 

 agriculture at the end of the eighteenth century — survey 

 of the progress of agriculture in the nineteenth century 

 with regard to farming, capital, and profits — the recent 

 depression and the losses in cnpital and profits. . . 42 



vii 



