Aristocratic Indebtedness in the Nineteenth Century: A Restatement

Abstract

IT was an altogether unexpected pleasure to find Prof. Spring eager and willing to comment on my recent article.' It was even more gratifying to discover on how many points we agreed.2 As to his criticisms, these may be put under three headings: (i) that I inadequately summarized the nature and argument of his contribution to the debate of the I950s; (2) that the main point of difference between us concerns the extent to which there was or was not a fundamental change in the aristocracy's financial position in the mid-Victorian period; and (3) that I have overstated the importance of his own contribution to the developing historiography of nineteenth-century English landed society. Let me deal with each of these points in turn.