Three Essays on the Population and Economy of the Midlands

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Abstract
The first effect of bringing the method of quantitative inquiry to bear on the problem seems to be to diminish the role assigned to enclosure. Professor Edward Gonner, in his exhaustive study of census returns, could find no general connexion between enclosure and movement of population. The copyholders as well as the freeholders received allotments in compensation for loss of common rights; common-right owners without land were compensated and so came into the category of landowners for the first time, thus increasing the numbers of the smallest owners. A question which calls for examination at the point is the nature of the evidence on which the figures are based. The land tax was a tax on land as measured by its annual value, taking into account the value of the buildings on it as well as the land. It was therefore levied on tradesmen, shopkeepers, innkeepers, canal proprietors, as well as landowners in the strict sense of the word.

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