237 



paying and labour-employing industry. In 1814 the gross 

 assessment to Property Tax of lands, tithes, manors and lines 

 in Great Britain was little less than one-third of the gross 

 assessments of all sources. In round figures it was £42,500,000 

 out of £137,500,000. It has stood still while other forms of 

 property have advanced. In 19 14 it remained at practically 

 the same hgure as it was a century before, while other sources 

 had risen to over £1,000,000,000. Thus agriculture had 

 dropped from one-third to one-twentieth. A similar change 

 has taken place in the proportion of the agrxultural population 

 to the rest of the inhabitants. In 18 14 a third of the people 

 were agricultural. In 1914 nine -tenths were engaged in other 

 industrial pursuits. Home agriculture no longer holds the 

 same position in regard to the food supplies of the nation as it 

 held in the early part of the 19th century. Its productiveness 

 has declined, and, making every allowance for a higher standard 

 of living, the decrease is probably actual as weU as relative. 

 In 1 82 1 it grew the bread-stuffs of more than double the number 

 for whom it provided in 1914. In 1821, also, it supplied the 

 whole of the beef and mutton eaten in the country. Here it 

 has probably made an advance. In 19 14 it provided the fresh 

 meat for some 25,000,000 out of a population of 45,000,000 ; 

 but it largely depended on imports of concentrated feeding 

 stuffs for the support of its live stock. The dechne in its power, 

 relative or actual, to pay Income Tax, employ labour, or produce 

 food has been accompanied by a decrease in its political 

 importance. Its influence during the French war may have 

 been as disproportionately great as it is now disproportionately 

 small. Be that as it may, the agricultural interest, which in 

 1814 was paramount, has lost the greater part of its political 

 power. 



Agrricultural Policy during: the Great War. — These changes in the 

 agricultural industry have been necessarily reflected in the 

 policy adopted towards the industry in the recent war. 

 Agriculture has undoubtedly prospered, but its prosperity has 

 been small as compared with that of the period 1793-1815. 

 Farming profits have been restricted. The incentive of high 

 gains which spurred the agricultural industry to such enormous 

 efforts in the h^rench war were not allowed to operate so 

 fully in the recent struggle. Patriotism made as strong an 

 appeal as the pocket. The great exertions made by home- 

 producers in the face of unexampled difficulties were all the 

 more creditable because, throughout the latter part of the 

 German war, so much more was done for consumers than for 



