Catalogue description Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Departments, and related bodies: Land Improvement Loans

Between 1847 and 1890 the expenditure made on land improvement in Great Britain, under the various Land Improvement Acts, and charged upon estates by rent-charges for limited terms of years, amounted to nearly £16,000,000. Four millions of this money was advanced by the Exchequer under the Public Money Drainage Act of 1846, under which landowners were permitted to raise loans for agricultural and other improvements and to charge such loans on their settled estates. Nearly all of this money had been repaid by the turn of the century. The remainder was found by the landowners themselves under the Improvement of Land Act 1864, and through the several land improvement companies which were set up between 1846 and 1870 under Acts of Parliament. These companies included The Landowners Drainage and Inclosure Company, set up in 1848, The West of England and South Wales Land Drainage and Inclosure Company, set up in 1849, The General Land Drainage and Improvement Company, set up in 1849, The Land Improvement Company, set up in 1853, The Scottish Drainage and Improvement Company, set up in 1856 and The Land Loan and Enfranchisement Company, set up in 1860.

These Acts which gave the land improvement companies varying powers to charge lands with loans and negotiate rates of interest on the loans, were administered in regard to a general supervision of the various schemes of works and improvements by the Copyhold, Inclosure and Tithe Commissioners.