1861
-65 428,041 107,984 — — 82,834 — 122,850 330,860 —
In the year 1865, 127,470 additional acres came under the heading “grass land,” chiefly because the area under the heading of “bog and waste unoccupied,” decreased by 101,543 acres. If we compare 1865 with 1864, there is a decrease in cereals of 246,667 qrs., of which 48,999 were wheat, 160,605 oats, 29,892 barley, &c.: the decrease in potatoes was 446,398 tons, although the area of their cultivation increased in 1865.
From the movement of population and the agricultural produce of Ireland, we pass to the movement in the purse of its landlords, larger farmers, and industrial capitalists. It is reflected in the rise and fall of the Income-tax. It may be remembered that Schedule D. (profits with the exception of those of farmers), includes also the so-called, “professional” profits – i.e., the incomes of lawyers, doctors, &c.; and the Schedules C. and E., in which no special details are given, include the incomes of employés, officers, State sinecurists, State fundholders, &c.
Table C INCREASE OR DECREASE IN THE AREA UNDER CULTIVATION,
PRODUCT PER ACRE, AND TOTAL PRODUCT OF 1865 COMPARED WITH 1864 Total Product Increase or Decrease, 1865 48,999
Qrs. 166,605
Qrs. 29,892
Qrs. 1,171 Qrs.
— 446,398 ts. 165,976 ts. — — 24,945 st. —
— — — —
5,684 Qrs. —
— 44,653 ts. 52,877 ts. — 461,554 ts.
1865 826,783
Qrs. 7,659,727
Qrs. 732,017
Qrs. 13,989 Qrs.
18,364 Qrs. 3,865,990 ts. 3,301,683 ts. 191,937 ts. 350,252 ts. 39,561 st. 3,068,707 ts.
1864 875,782
Qrs. 7,826,332
Qrs. 761,909
Qrs. 15,160Qrs.
12,680 Qrs. 4,312,388 ts. 3,467,659 ts. 147,284 ts. 297,375 ts. 64,506 st. 2,607,153 ts.
Increase or Decrease, 1865 0.3 — 1.0 1.6
—
0.5 0.4 — — 9.0 —
— 0.2 — —
1.9 —
— 2.8 1.1 — 0.2
Product per Acre 1865 13.0 12.3 14.9 14.8
10.4 3.6 9.9 13.3 10.4 25.2 1.8
1864 cwt.,
13.8 cwt.,
12.1 cwt.,
15.9 cwt.,16.4
cwt., 8.5 tons, 4.1 tons, 10.3 tons, 10.5 tons, 9.3 st.(14 lb.) 34.2 tons, 1.6
Increase or Decrease, 1865 9,494 69,658 — — — 3,143 — — 50,260 —
— — 4,402 1,197 26,536 — 316 1,801 — 68,924
Acres of Cultivated Land 1865 266,989 1,745,228 177,102 10,091 1,066,260 334,212 14,839 33,622 251,433 1,678,493
1864 276,483 1,814,886 172,700 8,894 1,039,724 337,355 14,073 31,821 301,693 1,609,569
Product Wheat Oats Barley Bere
Rye Potatoes Turnips Mangold
-wurzel Cabbages Flax Hay
Table D
THE INCOME-TAX ON THE SUBJOINED INCOMES IN POUNDS STERLING
(Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, Lond. 1866.)
1860 1861 1862 1863 1864 1865
Schedule A.
Rent of Land 13,893,829 13,003,554 13,398,938 13,494,091 13,470,700 13,801,616
Schedule B.
Farmers’ Profits. 2,765,387 2,773,644 2,937,899 2,938,823 2,930,874 2,946,072
Schedule D.
Industrial, &c.,
Profits 4,891,652 4,836,203 4,858,800 4,846,497 4,546,147 4,850,199
Total Schedules
A to E 22,962,885 22,998,394 23,597,574 23,658,631 23,236,298 23,930,340
Under Schedule D., the average annual increase of income from 1853-1864 was only 0.93; whilst, in the same period, in Great Britain, it was 4.58. The following table shows the distribution of the profits (with the exception of those of farmers) for the years 1864 and 1865: –
Table E
SCHEDULE D. INCOME FROM PROFITS (OVER ?6O) IN IRELAND
1864 ? 1865 ?
Total yearly
income of 4,368,610 divided
among 17,467 persons. 4,669,979 divided
among 18,081 persons.
Yearly income over ?60 and under ?100 238,626 divided
among 5,015 persons. 222,575 divided
among 4,703 persons.
Of the yearly
total income 1,979,066 divided
among 11,321 persons. 2,028,471 divided
among 12,184 persons.
Remainder of the
total yearly income 2,150,818 divided
among 1,131 persons. 2,418,933 divided
among 1,194 persons.
Of these 1,083,906 divided
among 910 persons. 1,097,937 divided
among 1,044 persons.
1,066,912 divided
among 121 persons. 1,320,996 divided
among 186 persons.
430,535 divided
among 105 persons. 584,458 divided
among 122 persons.
646,377divided
among 26 736,448 divided
among 28
262,610 divided
among 3 264,528 divided
among 3
England, a country with fully developed capitalist production, and pre-eminently industrial, would have bled to death with such a drain of population as Ireland has suffered. But Ireland is at present only an agricultural district of England, marked off by a wide channel from the country to which it yields corn, wool, cattle, industrial and military recruits.
The depopulation of Ireland has thrown much of the land out of cultivation, has greatly diminished the produce of the soil, and, in spite of the greater area devoted to cattle breeding, has brought about, in some of its branches, an absolute diminution, in others, an advance scarcely worthy of mention, and constantly interrupted by retrogressions. Nevertheless, with the fall in numbers of the population, rents and farmers’ profits rose, although the latter not as steadily as the former. The reason of this is easily comprehensible. On the one hand, with the throwing of small holdings into large ones, and the change of arable into pasture land, a larger part of the whole produce was transformed into surplus-produce. The surplus-produce increased, although the total produce, of which it formed a fraction, decreased. On the other hand, the money-value of this surplus-produce increased yet more rapidly than its mass, in consequence of the rise in the English market-price of meat, wool, &c., during the last 20, and especially during the last 10, years.
The scattered means of production that serve the producers themselves as means of employment and of subsistence, without expanding their own value by the incorporation of the labour of others, are no more capital than a product consumed by its own producer is a commodity. If, with the mass of the population, that of the means of production employed in agriculture also diminished, the mass of the capital employed in agriculture increased, because a part of the means of production that were formerly scattered, was concentrated and turned into capital.