Estate Acts, 1600 to 1830: A New Source for British History

Dan Bogart and Gary Richardson

No 14393, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A new database demonstrates that between 1600 and 1830, Parliament passed thousands of acts restructuring rights to real and equitable estates. These estate acts enabled individuals and families to sell, mortgage, lease, exchange, and improve land previously bound by landholding and inheritance laws. This essay provides a factual foundation for research on this important topic: the law and economics of property rights during the period preceding the Industrial Revolution. Tables present time-series, cross-sectional, and panel data that should serve as a foundation for empirical analysis. Preliminary analysis indicates ways in which this new evidence may shape our understanding of British economic and social history.

JEL-codes: K0 K11 N13 N43 P14 P16 P26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-law and nep-ure
Note: DAE LE POL
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Dan Bogart, Gary Richardson (2010), Estate acts, 1600–1830: A new source for British history, in Alexander J. Field (ed.) Research in Economic History (Research in Economic History, Volume 27), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.1-50

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Chapter: Estate acts, 1600–1830: A new source for British history (2010)
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