The Distribution of Property Values in England and Wales in 1798
The recorded yearly values of property available from the British land tax of 1798 and the accompanying Redemption Act provide the raw data necessary for a realistic measure of English wealth inequality in all counties at the end of the eighteenth century. Admittedly, there are exasperating weaknesses in the appraised rental values which stem from the varying regional procedures employed by various parish officials. Of more concern are the inequitable quotas assigned to the counties or even to the parishes which were based on economic relationships existing a century earlier. Yet these problems should not detract from the force of general quantitative statements about inequality 75 years prior to the new domesday survey of I 873.1 Thus, a finding that the number of owneroccupied properties accounted for only i O per cent of the number of families probably signifies that the top i o per cent held at least go per cent of the wealth; a sample study of multiple-property ownership signifies an even greater concentration. This article is an initial report of the distribution of property values in 1798, with an emphasis on property use. Some implications of ownership will be derived in making statements about wealth distribution in general. Statistical tests can be applied to establish bounds on inaccuracies of data and estimates of distribution parameters. The records of land ownership for the i 87os, and earlier for the inheritance tax, definitely establish the fact that there was very large inequality of wealthholding in Britain by the second half of the nineteenth century, but there is a degree of silence about the extent of this inequality in the earlier stages of the industrial revolution a century earlier. More is known about income distribution than about the use and ownership of tangible and intangible assets.2 At least one