The Social Distribution of Land and Men in England, 1436-1700.

The article presents a discussion related to social distribution of landed property and landowners in England between from 1436 to 1700, in reference to the paper of F.M.L Thompson on the topic. Thompson has provided a fruitful and fascinating conspectus of the distribution of landed property. His main purpose was to consider how and why England became overwhelmingly a land of tenant farmers by the end of the eighteenth century and the consequences of this for the subsequent development of the economy. Nevertheless it may be worth seeing whether there is more material available about the situation at the beginning of his inquiry which may at least provide a basis for slightly better-informed guessing. It may also be possible to provide more information about the numbers in the various categories of landowners, or at least show why more accurate information about this would be desirable. The only general criticism of Thompson, which the author ventures to make, is that it is not always clear what data are being used in his calculations.