The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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MOTIVES FOR AND RESULTS OF ENCLOSURE 559 powerless to resist it’. Very clear light on this subject is A.D. 169 § : . ~—1776. given by a debate in the House of Lords in 1781; the Bishop of S. David's? objected to the manner in which the claims of the tithe-owner were adjusted when land was enclosed ; Lord Thurlow, who was then Chancellor, expressed himself in very strong terms as to the injustice to small proprietors which frequently occurred in connection with such measures®, and the pamphlet literature of the day corroborates this statement? To those who were unable to conform to the new con- jo the small oe . . “ . armers ditions of profitable agriculture it was an additional hard- ship that the change. was hurried on by inconsiderate legislation ; but it may be doubted whether any parliament could have seriously attempted to restrain the economic forces, which were rendering the continued existence of the small farmer increasingly difficult. Corn prices ranged high, 1 The bill for enclosing Bisley was thrown out in 1733, because of the opposition of the weavers, who were also small farmers. R. F. Butler in Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, 11. 167. $ Parl. Hist. xxu. 47. In enclosing common fields there was great difficulty about making a satisfactory allotment of tithes. The Bishop of 8. David's was the spokesman of a large number of clergy who disliked a change by which they were forced to undertake the management of a glebe, instead of obtaining tithes from the occupiers (Parliamentary History, x11. 49). On the other hand, the agricultural improvers could not but feel that tithe was a form of tax which had a baneful influence upon agriculture. Mr Howlett, the vicar of Great Dunmow, calculated that the tithes in his neighbourhood had increased in value twelve limes as much as the rent (4nnals of Agriculture, xxxVIIT, 182). While a charge of this sort was a real obstacle to improvement, the recent changes made it more difficult for the clergy to consent to accept an arrangement, by which they agreed for themselves and for their successors, to forego the advantage which might arise from any further increase of cultivation, The benefits which had come to the Universities from the law which assigned to them corn-rents were well known, and it was not obviously politic to accept a change in system. In this way it came about that the tithe-owners were inclined to regard the Board of Agriculture and their supporters with much suspicion, and this was in all probability one of the influences which caused the discontinuance of this department in 1819. The existence of tithe had also a curious effect upon the farmers in making them prefer the policy by which labourers were maintained out of the rates to that of raising their wages. Tithes are levied on the produce after the rates have been allowed for, but without taking account of the expenses of cultivation, so that the farmer who employed labour would pay a smaller tithe if the rates were high and wages low than he would have to do on the same crop if rates were low and wages high. This is another of the minor causes which contributed to render the pauperising policy of allowances popular with the large farmers, (Annals of dgriculture, XXXVIIL 134.) 3 Parl. Hist. XXII. 59. 4 Enquiry into the advantages and disadvantages resulting Jrom Bills of Enclosure (1780).

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