Agricultural History Review, Volume 41 Part 2 (1993), pp. 169–175

Tithes represented a tenth of the natural increase of the produce of the soft paid by farmers to support the established church in the parishes of England and Wales. Traditionally, tithes were paid in kind, although in many parishes, some or all of them could be paid in money. The 1826 Tithe Commutation Act commuted all tithes in kind and customary money payments and substituted a fluctuating money payment known as a tithe rent-charge, which was to adjusted each year on the basis of the seven-year average price of wheat, barley, and oats. Since there is no direct method of measuring agricultural production before 1866, this value of rent-charge has the potential to be a useful measurement of agricultural output. The paper investigates the advantages, potentials, and problems associated with this source of data, using tithe material from Dorset as a case study. 

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