This book began life in research undertaken for the forthcoming Cambridge Agrarian History of England and Wales, vol. VII, 1850–1914, which revealed a substantial gap in the record relating to agricultural rent. Time and resources did not permit the original research to progress very far, but it was clear that the archival material existed from which to draw up a far more accurate picture of agricultural rent than has generally been available to agricultural and economic historians. In part this has simply been a question of opportunity. Try as they might, contemporary experts and commentators could find out little about rents because farmers were reluctant to discuss the financial arrangements into which they had entered with their landlords. Increasingly landed families have deposited their papers in public repositories, and the resulting accessibility of those records has fundamentally altered the position. It is not going too far to suggest that this book reveals more about agricultural rents for the period 1690–1914 than contemporaries could have dreamt of.

Our work was made possible by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council. We have also benefited enormously from the advice and help of many people as we have progressed. We are particularly grateful for the opportunity to develop some of our ideas to audiences at the British Agricultural History Society Conference at Nottingham (Easter 1992) and at the Centre of East Anglian Studies at the University of East Anglia (January 1992).