PREFACE. The materials which have been used in the preparation of this paper were collected some time ago when the writer had access to the collections of the British Museum and to the Library of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. At the same time materials were collected for a paper on the history of the relations between landlords and tenants in England, which will soon be ready for publication. These studies in the history of English land tenure were undertaken with the hope that from the experience of an older country we might find a clue to the correct understanding of the problems of tenancy and landownership in the United States. While the present paper and the one in preparation are incidental to the preparation of a monograph on tenancy and landownership in the United States, this last is only a part of a more comprehensive study in agricultural economics. Landowning farmers still numerous but depressed, and many Causes of ruin,-indebtedness accompanied by a fall in prices.. Extent of the decline of yeomanry during the depression... THE DECLINE OF LANDOWNING FARMERS IN ENGLAND. INTRODUCTION. During the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 a significant decline in the percentage of landowning farmers took place in the United States. The facts of this decline are easily obtained;1 the causes, however, are not so readily formulated. To analyze the forces which are tending to bring about a change in the organization of industrial society, and to observe with sufficient care the laws and customs and other conditions which retard or accelerate the operation of these forces, is a most difficult task. This work is facilitated, however, by studying similar conditions in other countries. Some countries having passed through more stages of economic development than others, it is possible to compare present conditions in a new country with the past of an older country, and thus bring some light to bear upon present day problems. England offers excellent advantages to the student of historical and comparative agriculture. English agriculture has, perhaps, passed through more stages of economic development than that of any other country. Increasing intercourse with the outside world, and the accompanying changes in the organization of industrial society, have made it necessary for the English farmers of each succeeding generation to adapt themselves to new conditions. These economic changes have had a marked influence upon the relation of the farmers to the land which they cultivate. Two hundred years ago landownership on the part of farmers was common in England; but today it is rare. It has been attempted in this paper to bring together as much evidence as possible upon the conditions and forces which have resulted in this decline in the number of landowning farmers in England. 1 Twelfth Census, Vol. V., p. 689. Percentage of farms operated by owners in 1880, 74.5 per cent.; in 1890, 71.6 per cent.; in 1900, 64.7 per cent. |