[13] According to the Local Government Report of 1878, the rental of all the properties over _five hundred_ acres averaged _thirty-six shillings_ an acre; that of properties between _fifty_ and _a hundred_ acres, _forty-eight shillings_ an acre; and that of properties between _ten_ and _fifty_ acres, _a hundred and sixteen shillings_ an acre. In Scotland, the rental of properties over _five hundred_ acres averaged _nine shillings_ an acre: that of properties between _ten_ and _fifty_ acres, _four hundred and thirteen shillings_. With regard to the value of properties under _ten_ acres, the following Scotch statistics are interesting. Four-fifths of the ground rental of Edinburgh is taken by owners of less than one acre, the rental of such owners being on an average _ninety-nine pounds_. Three-fourths of the ground rental of Glasgow is taken by owners of similar plots of ground; only there the rental of such owners is _a hundred and seventy-one pounds_. In the municipal borough of Kilmarnock, land owned in plots of less than an acre lets per acre at _thirty-two pounds_. The land of the few men who own larger plots lets for not more than _twenty pounds_. Each one of the _eleven thousand_ men who own collectively four-fifths of Edinburgh, has in point of money as much stake in the soil as though he were the owner in Sutherland of _two thousand_ acres: and each one of the _ten thousand_ men who own collectively three-fourths of Glasgow, has as much stake in the soil as though he were the owner in Sutherland of _three thousand four hundred_ acres. [14] This is Mr. Giffen’s estimate. Mr. Mulhall, who has made independent calculations, does not differ from Mr. Giffen by more than five per cent. [15] General merchandise is estimated by Mr. Mulhall at _three hundred and forty-three million pounds_. For every _hundred_ inhabitants in the year 1877 there were _five_ horses, _twenty-eight_ cows, _seventy-six_ sheep, and _ten_ pigs. In 1881 there were in Great Britain _five million four hundred and seventy-five thousand_ houses. The rent of eighty-seven per cent of these was under _thirty pounds_ a year, and the rental of more than a half averaged only _ten pounds_. The total house-rental of Great Britain in that year was _one hundred and fourteen million pounds_; and the aggregate total of houses over _thirty pounds_ annual value was _sixty million pounds_; though in point of number these houses were only thirteen per cent of the whole.