64 



EEPORT 1869. 



In these comparisons no adjustment for the depreciation of the currency 

 in the earlier part of the century has been attempted. Professor Jevons has 

 given a table in the ' Statistical Journal'*, showing that, in 1814, gold was 

 above the standard price of ,£3 17s. lO^d. by 34 per cent., and in the next 

 year 20 per cent. ; at the latter ratio one-Jifth must be deducted from all 

 values in 1814-15. 



From the absence of any authentic record of the land under cultivation in 

 1814-1.5, the means of computing the farm rental per acre are wanting. 

 We are in a better position now : the rent for the whole kingdom, as well as 

 for individual counties, can be worked out with. I believe, a useful approach 

 to accuracy. The rent for all England and "Wales was, in ISGG, ,£1 17.5. 9d. 

 per acre. The statistics for this, as well as for the counties of the south- 

 western division, are displayed below. 



Note. — The agricultural statistics do not include the area of hill-pastures ; holdings under 

 fire acres are also excluded. In 1861, according to the census, there were 7050 holdings in 

 .England and Wales under five acres each ; their aggregate area was, however, only 19,140. 



These figures have, perhaps, no very immediate bearing on the subject of 

 the paper ; but it seemed of possible utility to record them here for future 

 guidance. 



While land and other kinds of real property have made, in the past half 

 century, the highly satisfactory progress already mentioned, it is certain that 

 trades, manufactures, and professions have enormously distanced agricultural 

 industry in the race for -wealth. 



The assessment "for all profits or gains arising from ony profession, trade, 

 employment, or vocation," under Schedule D, is notoriouslj-, and perhaps 

 irremediably defective. In their last Heport, the Commissioners of Inland 

 Kevenue estimate, from circumstances within their knowledge, that the 

 return of income under this schedule is =£57,250,000 short of the true 

 amount ; no exaggei'ation can, therefore, be charged against the figures 

 which represent profits and gains in the annexed Table (p. 65). 



The land rental in respect of which the farmer's profits are assessed has, 

 during the fifty years ended with 1S65, increased by ,£12,375,000, or 36 

 per cent. ; the profits of trades and professions have, in the same interval, 

 augmented by .£72,611,000, or 212 per cent., irrespective of the correction 

 due for depreciated currency in 1814-15. Two factors enter into the 

 increased assessments returned under Schedules A and B since 1864 — real 



* Vol. xsviii. 1805. 



t The rent per acre for land, i. c. for 25,542,427 acres, under eiiltiralion, in all England 

 and Wales, according to the Returns of 1807-68, is i'l lis. -id. 



