328 = ^2 
British Agriculture. 
CHAPTER X. 
Tithes for sup- 
port of religion 
in England : 
commuted 
from payment 
in kind to a 
money pay- 
Bient. 
Church, Crown, and Charity Estates. 
In the early period of Christianity in this country, among other 
ecclesiastical laws introduced from the neighbouring continent, 
the Scriptural principle of reserving for the support of religion 
a tenth part of the produce of industry was enjoined. This 
included not only a tenth part of the produce of the crops and 
stock payable in gross, but also a tenth of the clear gains from 
manual occupations and trades. This large proportion of the 
total produce of those countries which had emljraced Chris- 
tianity was apportioned, more than a thousand years ago, into 
four divisions : one to maintain the edifice of the church, the 
second to support the poor, the third the bishops, and the fourth 
the parochial clergy. Originally all the land in the country 
was titheable except such as belonged to the Crown and the 
Church itself. At the time of the Reformation, much of the 
Church lands in this country passed into the hands of laymen, 
and continued exempt from tithe, and from various other causes 
a considerable proportion of the lands of the country has become 
exempted. As the country became more populous, and its 
demands upon the produce of the soil more difficult to meet, the 
payment of tithes in kind Avas found a great hindrance to im- 
proved agriculture, as men were naturally unwilling to expend 
capital for the purpose of increasing the produce, if another who 
ran no risk, and bore no part of the toil, had a right to share 
in that increase. Forty years ago it was determined that this 
should cease, and it was enacted that, instead of payment in 
kind, tithes should be commuted into a payment in money, cal- 
culated on the average receipts of the preceding seven years, the 
annual money value to vary according to the annual price of 
corn on a septennial average, but the quantity of, corn then 
ascertained to remain for ever as the tithe of the parish. 
A very important change of principle here took place. Up 
to that time, the income of the Church increased with the 
increased value yielded by the land, the original object that the 
Church should progress in material resources in equal proportion 
with the land being thus maintained. From 1836 that incre- 
ment was stopped. Since that time the land rental of England 
has risen 50 per cent., and all that portion of the increase 
which previous to 183G would have gone to the Church has gone 
to the landowners. A tenth of that would not, however, by 
any means adequately represent the loss to the Church and the 
gain to the landowners ; for the tithe in kind was the tenth of 
the gross produce, which was equal to much more than a tenth 
