Agricultural History Review, Volume 40 Part 1 (1992), pp. 23–37

This article is based on the estate papers of four English peers during the mid-seventeenth century - those of the Marquis of Hertford, and the Earls of Bridgwater, Dorset, and Northumberland. It seeks to impress the importance of the striking improvement in rental return on these estates during the years immediately following the English Civil Wars. It is submitted that the key to this improvement lay both in policies of rack-renting and also, and perhaps most importantly, in the concentration upon altering the nature of tenancies, from copyhold to leasehold. This concentration coincided with certain important developments in the English laws of property. 

Complete Volume PDF