After the Repeal of the Corn-laws 67 



wanted to use their savings to own or rent a bit of land, even if they 

 had to pay more in interest or rent than they could recover out 

 of the profits on its produce. In the same way the rising wages 

 of agricultural labour enabled labourers in some cases to take 

 allotments even at a rent which had to be partly met out of their 

 wages. But the class more especially responsible for these tiny 

 holdings were the numerous small shopkeepers or artisans, widows, 

 little investors and so forth, who as their incomes rose invested in 

 land, irrespective of the economic results to be expected. In all these 

 ways such little holdings might increase, especially in the neighbour- 

 hood of the towns, without showing in any way that small holdings 

 were economically advantageous. Where purely agricultural purposes 

 were concerned, that is to say undoubtedly from five acres upwards, 

 the decrease begins, and only ends where the medium sized holdings 

 end, to give place to an increase of large holdings. This was what 

 happened, in the period 1846 to 1880, everywhere where purely 

 economic circumstances came into consideration, that is to say 

 everywhere except on the outskirts of the towns and manufacturing 

 districts. 



(c) The Geographical Distribution of Holdings. 



The tendency in the matter of the unit of agricultural holding had 

 thus remained the same in the first thirty years of Free Trade as it 

 had been since the middle of the eighteenth century. Chronologically, 

 the extension of the large farm system may be described as first 

 constituting an agrarian revolution and then continuing slowly but 

 surely for more than sixty years. But the geographical aspect of the 

 development also deserves some attention. The expulsion of the small 

 holding by the large holding took place at a time when corn-growing 

 had almost a monopoly of agricultural effort, for the reason that 

 meat, dairy produce, poultry and the like had become less profitable, 

 while the profits on corn were steadily increasing. This remarkable 

 but one-sided agricultural development, however, naturally was not 

 equally marked in all parts of the country. It took place earliest and 

 most completely where the conditions were by nature most suited 

 to corn-production : that is to say chiefly in the north and east of 

 England. As early as 1796 Robertson pointed out that the dryness 

 of the eastern counties suited them especially for corn, while in the 



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