ABSTRACT
There has been, within the last twenty years, a very considerable increase in the value of land in this country. The income-tax returns are most instructive on this point, and, as they show the rental of land in England, Scotland, and Ireland separately, they afford the means of comparing the rate of improvement in each country. That improvement does not seem to have begun in England till 1858, the gross annual value of “Lands” in 1857 having been returned at £50,000 less in that year than in 1846. From 1858 the rise has been progressive and continuous, and with an average increase of £470,000 a year. The rise seems to have begun somewhat earlier in Scotland, and the average yearly increase has been £82,000. The returns from Ireland cannot be distinguished prior to 1862, and show an average yearly increase, from that year, of £39,000. The total rise within a peried of eighteen years has been a little over 20 per cent.; but, as will be seen by the annexed Table, the proportion of increase on the Scotch rental has been greater than on that of England. The small rise in Ireland presents a striking contrast to England and Scotland. The capital value of the total increase at the present selling price of land in this country will be reckoned something prodigious, especially by those of us who are old enough to recall the dismal prophecies of the agricultural ruin which would surely follow the free admission of foreign corn. Gross Annual Value of Land Assessed to the Income-Tax in 1875 https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
1857
1875
Increase.
Increase per cent.
Capital Value of Increase at 30 Years' Purchase.
£
£
£
£
£
England…
41,177,000
50,125,000
8,948,000
21
268,440,000
Scotland…
5,932,000
7,493,000
1,561,000
26
46,830,000
Ireland, from 1862
8,747,000
9,293,000
546,000
6
16,380,000
55,856,000
66,911,000
11,055,000
…
331,650,000
