r, and rent of cottages in England at the
date of Young's tours, about 1770, and of Caird's in 1850[647]:

Rent of Produce of
cultivated land Wheat Price per lb. of
per acre. per acre. Bread. Meat. Butter.

1770 13s. 4d. 23 1-1/2d. 3-1/4d. 6d.
1850 26s. 10d. 26-3/4[646] 1-1/4d. 5d. 1s.

Price of Wool Cottage Labourer's wages
per lb. rents. per week.

1770 5-1/2d. 34s. 8d. 7s. 3d.
1850 1s. 74s. 6d. 9s. 7d.

Thus in eighty years the average rent of arable land rose 100%, the
average wheat crop 14%, while the price of bread had decreased 16%.
But meat had increased 70%, wool over 100%, butter 100%. The chief
benefit to the farmer therefore lay in the increased value of live
stock and its products, and it was found then, as in the present
depression, that the holders of strong wheat land suffered most, which
was further illustrated by the fact that the rent of the corn-growing
counties of the east coast averaged 23s. 8d. per acre; that of the
mixed corn and grass counties in the midlands and west, 31s. 5d.

Writing in 1847, Porter said rents had doubled since 1790.[648] In
Essex farms could be pointed out which were let in 1790 at less than
10s. an acre, but during the war at from 45s. to 50s. In 1818 the rent
went down to 35s., and in 1847 was 20s.

In Berks. and Wilts. farms let at 14s. per acre in 1790, rose by 1810
to 70s., or fivefold; sank in 1820 to 50s., and in 1847 to 30s. In
Staffordshire farms on one estate let for 8s. an acre in 1790, rose
during the war to 35s., and at the peace were lowered to 20s., at
which price they remained. Owing to better farming light soils had
been applied to uses for which heavy lands alone had formerly been
considered fit, with a considerable increase of rent.

On the Duke of Rutland's[649] Belvoir estate, of from 18,000 to 20,000
acres of above average quality, rents were in--

1799 19s. 3-3/4d. an acre.
1812 25s. 8-3/4d. "
1830 25s. 1-3/4d. "
1850 36s. 8d. "

But the Dukes of Rutland were indulgent landlords and evidently took
no undue advantage of the high prices during the war, a policy whose
wisdom was fully justified afterwards.

It was the opinion of m