ABSTRACT
The landed interest was far from eclipsed during the first phase of the Industrial Revolution. The great landowners with, say, more than 10,000 acres consolidated their position and, through the medium of their professional estate stewards, encouraged further improvement by the tenantry who did most of the practical farming. The continued prosperity of the landed interest is hardly surprising. In the south Midlands about three-fifths of the land was enclosed during the period 1750–1850. During the French War when roughly half the parliamentary Acts of Enclosure were effected, the most unlikely scrubland and hillsides were broken to the plough. Fencing land gave each proprietor greater independence and flexibility. Between 1790 and 1813 the average rise in land rents was about 80 per cent. The great landowners' attachment to agricultural investment still made sense in terms of social leadership and obligation to tenants and labourers.
