Landed Estates and Rural Inequality in English History: From the Mid-Seventeenth Century to the Present (Palgrave Studies in Economic History)

Based on a detailed investigation of local sources, this book examines the history of the landed estate system in England since the mid-seventeenth century. Over recent centuries England was increasingly occupied by landed estates run by locally dominant and nationally influential owners. Historically, newcomers adopted the behaviour of existing landowners, all of whom presided over a relatively impoverished mass of rural inhabitants. Preferences for privacy and fine views led landowners to demolish or remove some whole villages. Alongside extensive landscape remodelling, rights-of-way were often privatised, imposing a cost on the economy. Social and environmental implications of the landed system as a whole are discussed and particular attention is paid to the nineteenth-century investment of industrial profits in estates. Why was the system so attractive and how was it perpetuated? Matters of poverty and inequality have always been of perennial interest to scholars of many persuasions and to the educated public; with this important book surveying environmental concerns in addition. Prologue 7 Contents 10 Chapter 1: The Landed Interest 11 Sources and Further Reading 19 Chapter 2: Cotton into Land 21 Sources and Further Reading 40 Chapter 3: The Lower Orders 42 Sources and Further Reading 51 Chapter 4: Expelling the People 53 Sources and Further Reading 62 Chapter 5: Road Capture 64 Sources and Further Reading 77 Chapter 6: Killing Grounds 78 Sources and Further Reading 88 Chapter 7: Living by Rapine & Plunder 89 Sources and Further Reading 98 Chapter 8: Institutions and Inequality in the Countryside 99 Sources and Further Reading 111 Chapter 9: The Estate System as Market Failure 112 Sources and Further Reading 127 Index 129 Front Matter ....Pages i-xi The Landed Interest (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 1-10 Cotton into Land (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 11-31 The Lower Orders (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 33-43 Expelling the People (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 45-55 Road Capture (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 57-70 Killing Grounds (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 71-81 Living by Rapine & Plunder (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 83-92 Institutions and Inequality in the Countryside (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 93-105 The Estate System as Market Failure (Eric L. Jones)....Pages 107-123 Back Matter ....Pages 125-129