Agricultural Capital and Profits 59 



could pay more rent.^ A rise in rent was 

 natural, but in some cases it was pushed 

 too far. 



This tendency was increased by the 

 dissolution of the monasteries and the 

 partial dispossession of the guilds of their 

 lands. The confiscated lands found their 

 way into the hands of the monied classes — 

 e.g., Sir Thomas Gresham became very 

 wealthy in this way — and they applied 

 mercantile ideas with the view of making 

 a profit from their purchases. The rough 

 application of mercantile ideas to agricul- 

 ture has often proved harmful, or at least 

 painful, though, on the other hand, there 

 are compensating advantages, as Adam 

 Smith showed. Rogers, as usual, is very 



^ As noticed above, the enclosures of this period were 

 partly for the sake of the adoption of "convertible 

 husbandry," and not exclusively for the extension of sheep 

 farms. See Cunningham's " Growth of English Industry 

 and Commerce," vol. i., p. 526. 



