Bonds without Bondsmen: Tenant-Right in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Tenant-right, or a tenant's right to sell his holding, was one of the most puzzling institutions of nineteenth-century Irish land tenure. Historians have argued that the institution reflects the tenants' assertions of a proprietary interest in the land, an assertion often backed up by thre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of economic history 1996-03, Vol.56 (1), p.113-142
Main Authors: Guinnane, Timothy W., Miller, Ronald I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural land
Arrearage
Bonds
Economic history
Economics
Ejectments
Evictions
Farmers
History
Ireland
Irish famine
Irish history
Land tenure
Landlord tenant relations
Landlords
Landowners
Tenancy
Tenants
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Summary:Tenant-right, or a tenant's right to sell his holding, was one of the most puzzling institutions of nineteenth-century Irish land tenure. Historians have argued that the institution reflects the tenants' assertions of a proprietary interest in the land, an assertion often backed up by threats and violence. In this article we argue that landlords respected tenant-right because they could profit from the instistution. Our model reflects comments by contemporaries and explains that tenant-right functioned as a bond aganist nonpayment of rent and was part of a rational landlord's income-maximizing strategy.
ISSN:0022-0507
1471-6372
DOI:10.1017/S0022050700016041