7. The next enquiry into which we shall briefly en ter, respects the absolute value of the landed property in England and Wales. Having ascertained the amount of the rack-rent, we shall have little difficulty in eluci dating this point, provided we can determine the num ber of years' purchase at which land is sold ; that is, how many rents ought to be given for the fee-simple of land. Mr Arthur Young, in his Enquiry into the pro gressive Value of Money, estimates the rate at which land was sold in the year 1811, at 28 years' purchase. As this, however, must have been on the real, and not on the rack-rent, some deduction must be made on that score ; while, on the other hand, no addition ought to be made to the rate since 1811, as the value of land certainly has not increased since that year. Assuming, therefore, that 28,C00,0001. was the amount in that year, either of the actual rent, or of the rent of such estates as were within a very short period of the expiration of their leases, we shall have the total amount of the value of the landed property of the kingdom, if we multiply this sum by 28 ; this will give 78,400,0001. as the result.
8. By the returns under the population act in 1811, it appears that the number of families employed in agri cultural operations in England was 697,353 ; and in Wales 72,846, making a total of 770,199. The average number of people in a family is about 4.5, which will make the whole number of people employed in agricul tural operations 3,465,895. The number of farmers, or persons occupying farms, is supposed to be about 200,000. On this supposition, if we take the amount of their profits at the round stun of 30,000,000/., the average profit of the farmers will be about 1501. per annum.
It is scarcely necessary to repeat the observations which we have already made more than once, that the result of all these calculations must be considered as merely approximations to the truth. We are also sen sible, that, with respect to some of the statements which we have made, they differ from those given by statisti cal writers. 'Ibis difference is accounted for, we trust, favourably to the superior accuracy of our statements, by our grounding them on the results of Table No. 2. p. 564; which must be regarded as resting on more minute, careful, and extensive enquiries, than any private indi viduals could make. In defence of the accuracy of our statements, we would likewise observe, that they are at variance with statements made 10 or 15 years ago; and we need not remind our readers, that, even within that short period, the advance on the value of every thing (from whatever cause proceeding) has been great. There is only one point on whicl, we feel hesitation and doubt ; and that is, respecting the capital per acre re quired in agriculture. Yet if Mr A. Young came near the truth in estimating the English capital employed in agriculture in 1789 at 41. an acre, whoever reflects on
the increased price of all the expences attendant on a family and a farm, as well as on the different manner in which farmers now live, will not deem 91, per acre as an overcharged estimate of the capital which a farmer, who expects to do justice to himself and his farm, ought to possess for every acre on which he enters.
Before we conclude this branch of our subject, for the length of which we must apologise on the ground of its extreme importance, we shall offer a few histori cal notices on English farming at various periods. This will enable our readers to judge of its progress, and to compare its former with its present state; for statisti cal enquiries, which are confined entirely and exclu sively to the present state of a country, are neither so in teresting, instructive, nor even so intelligible and con nected, as those that also embrace some notice of its for mer state.
The first decided and important epoch in the history of English agriculture mar be fixed in the reign of Henry VII. when a notion began to prevail among the nobility and gentry, that their estates might be render ed much more valuable to them, by being employed in grazing than in tillage. In consequence of this opinion, which was acted upon for this and the two succeeding reigns, there was much discontent among the lower classes of the people ; till at length, in Elizabeth's time, acts were passed for promoting and encouraging tillage, which were supported by Lord Bacon, and opposed by Sir Walter Raleigh, who thought it impossible to render grain a staple commodity of this country. His speech exhibits a striking picture of the state of English agri culture at that period. According to him, the poor far mers could not purchase seed to sow the land, which the law required to be sown ; and France offered the Queen to supply Ireland with corn at two shillings a bushel, at which price our farmers would be beggars. It would seem that the tillage laws passed by Elizabeth were found to be inefficient, if not injurious, for by an act of the 39 Eliz. they were repealed.
There does not seem to have been any regular mode of conducting the husbandry of this kingdom, or any essential improvements introduced into it, till the resto ration of Charles II. At this period, many of the land ed proprietors, who had espoused the cause of that mo narch, and retired to the continent, on their return in troduced several of the principles and modes of practice which they had observed abroad, particularly in Flan ders. There is, indeed, good reason to believe, that clover, sainfoin, the folding of sheep, and perhaps tur nips, (though the introduction of the last is generally fixed at a much later period,) were brought into this country about the time of the restoration of Charles II.