§ 7. ENGLAND STILL MAINLY AGRICULTURAL--Of the population of the country at this time the majority were still {153} engaged in agriculture, and the agricultural labourers alone formed one-third of the working classes, and a large number even of the manufacturing classes still worked in the fields for a portion of the year, especially in harvest-time. In 1770 England was still mainly an agricultural country, and Arthur Young estimates that the income of the agricultural portion of the nation was larger than that of all the rest of the community. But it must be remembered that by far the largest portion of this income was in the hands of large land-owners and the farmers, the share of the labourer being of course much smaller. Arthur Young’s estimates must be taken with a certain amount of caution, but they are probably approximately correct, and are certainly interesting as giving us a very fair idea of the distribution of occupations and national wealth just before the Industrial Revolution. Hence I append a small table, giving in round numbers the figures of his estimates. It will be noticed that the number of the population is rather too high, but the proportion of one class to another is probably correct. INCOMES OF VARIOUS CLASSES[44] IN MILLION POUNDS [Illustration] Interest on capital 5 Paupers 1·5 Military and official 5 Professions 5 Commercial 10 Manufacturing 27 Agricultural 66 Total = £119,500,000. [44. This table is drawn to scale.] {154} POPULATION IN MILLIONS [Illustration] Paupers ·5 Military and official ·5 Professional ·2 Commercial ·7 Manufacturing 3 Agricultural 3·6 Total = 8,500,000.