Land Hunger: Land as a Commodity and as a Status Good, England, 1500–1910

Abstract

Historians believe that land in preindustrial societies was sought partly for status. Later land became a commodity like any other. Per unit of monetary return preindustrial land prices should thus be higher than those of nonstatus assets. Surprisingly in England from 1560 to 1800 the price of land per £1 of return was little above that of nonstatus assets. Only in the 19th century does a possible price premium emerge. Any change in the land market in England from 1560 to 1910 was the reverse of the expected: from land as a commodity in preindustrial England to land as a status good in industrial England.