TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 919 
of wealth ; (4) unproductiveness. Argument for progression as realising equality 
of sacrifice. Vagueness of sacrifice as a measure. Criticism of the argument that 
the rule of proportional taxation must fall with the ‘assurance’ theory of the 
State. Proportional taxation asa working rule of finance. Experience of pro- 
gression mainly confined to small areas, and therefore (even if favourable) of little 
service in considering the case of large territories. The social aspect of progressive 
 taxation.- Objection to the use of taxation for non-financial aims, Conclusion. 
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 
The following Papers were read :— 
1. The Probable Effects on Wages of a General Reduction in the Hours of 
Labour. By Professor J. KE. C. Munro.—See Reports, p. 472. 
2. The Agricultural Changes in England during the Period 1450-1650. 
By Professor W. J. ASHLEY. 
Recent writers have called attention to the agrarian changes in England in 
the sixteenth century—changes which may be briefly described as the substitution 
of pasture, or of a convertible husbandry with a preponderance of pasture, for the 
tillage of the old common-field system. The object of the present paper will be to 
determine the methods by which, and the extent to which, the change was 
effected. 
For this purpose it is necessary to distinguish between the various parts of a 
manor :— 
(1) As to the demesne. It had long been usual, where the lord was non- 
resident, to lease the demesne to a farmer. [This, as applied to agriculturists, 
seems to have been the earliest, and for some time the most important use of the 
term ; and it was probably only during the sixteenth century itself that it came 
to be more generally applied to tenants of all sorts.] Here the lord could not be 
hindered from taking the land into his own hands, when the lease expired, and 
devoting it to pasture; or from taking advantage of the increased demand for land 
for sheep-breeding, to demand a higher rent. So far as the demesne lay in intermixed 
strips in the common-fields, difficulties might arise owing to the claim of the 
tenants to commonage on the fallow, though it is improbable that they would 
receive any support from the law courts ; and the withdrawal of such strips from 
tillage would hasten the break-up of the common-field system as a whole. But it 
remains to be determined to what extent the demesnes were still composed of such 
intermixed strips. 
(2) As to the lands possessed by freeholders. Here again there would probably 
be no legal obstacles in the way of enclosure; and the effect of such action upon 
the three-field system would depend on the extent to which free holdings still lay 
in the common-fields, which has not yet been ascertained. 
(8) As to the common pasture and waste. Legislation and legal decisions as to 
the right of approver probably gave the lords, where the pasturage was at all 
extensive, a tolerably free hand. Where the pasturage was limited the lords could, 
and frequently did, overstock it with their own sheep. The diminution of common 
ae would have an injurious effect upon the common-field tillage, and would 
ead, in some measure, to its abandonment. 
(4) But the chief interest of the subject lies in the villein, customary, or copy- 
hold tenancies. 1n the second half of the period, such enclosures as did occasionally 
take place would appear not to have involved the dispossession, of landholders, and 
to have been injurious only to the cotters. But there is abundant evidence that 
great numbers of customary tenants were dispossessed during the first half of the 
