Sheila Markey answers â€œHow do the people in this novel acquire...â€� â€� Sense and... Q&A

Gold Dust asked this question about Sense and Sensibility:

How do the people in this novel acquire income/money? They never seem to work. But they talk as if just living on a property gives them income. And why are characters given their money (like inheritance) in annual increments instead of all at once?

Sheila Markey The main people obtain their money in Sense and Sensibility severals ways. First, multiple people like Mr. Dashwood, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Willoughby, â€¦m´Ç°ù±ðThe main people obtain their money in Sense and Sensibility severals ways. First, multiple people like Mr. Dashwood, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Willoughby, own property which provides them with money from rents. They may also farm the land directly. They can also obtain money from their land by selling the natural resources like trees. Specific types of trees were often intentionally planted so that there would could be sold it the future. Mr. Dashwood discusses selling trees in the book and Sir John Middleton is mentioned owning a plantation. The second way we see to earn money was through a job, but it should be noted that there were only a few careers considered acceptable for genteel society to take up. These were the church, the army, and law. These tended to be the domain of younger sons because the bulk of the estate was always passed down to the heir to keep it intact. Colonel Brandon was a second son and he joined the army and travelled to India because of it. The law is an option that Edward Farrarsâ€� family ( although he is an heir) would like him to join. This specifically would mean to become a barrister who trys cases in court. Third is to join the clergy. This required going to the universities at Oxford or Cambridge and then being ordained. If one managed to obtain at least one church living, whether by being given it or though purchase, one could get money from both tithing the locals who belonged to the parish and farming oneâ€™s own land. Edward Farrarsâ€� living ends up being over Â£200 which is the same amount that Jane Austenâ€™s father first made when he married. This would be on the low level for gentility income. One needed around Â£1000 a year to be able to afford to buy and maintain a carriage. Another way we see people obtaining their money is through trade. This is not genteel and lowered oneâ€™s social status. People who obtained their money would include the Jennings family. Families in trade often provided very large doweries to their daughters in order to marry into the more socially desireable gentry and aristocratic class which is what the Jennings have done with their daughters. Doweries were also generally provided with daughterâ€™s of the gentry and aristocracy as well. Money could also be made through investments. Mrs. Ferrars seems to have investments which she would be willing to give to Edward Farrars (on top of an estate) if he would marry the rich Miss Morton. They money that the Dashwood women have is also in investments. Investments, or bonds, had an interest of either 3% or 5%. All together they have Â£10000 which gives them Â£500 a year to live on. To put in perspective how miserly there half-brother is being by not giving them additional money he has, combining inheritances, estate income, and money from his wifeâ€™s dowery, at least Â£5000 a year.
Sources: The Annoted Sense and Sensibility edited by David M. shapard
Jane Austen: the World of Her Novels by Deirdre Le Faye(less)

flag

Gold Dust Wow, thanks for that thorough explanation! So in the case of lumber and farming being the ways of generating income, I guess the owners of the propert ...more
Nov 18, 2018 10:57PM · flag

Sheila Markey After 1772, because of the Somersett case, it was interpreted that slavery did not exist in the country under law and the less than 15000 slaves that After 1772, because of the Somersett case, it was interpreted that slavery did not exist in the country under law and the less than 15000 slaves that existed within England were emancipated, so by the time of Sense and Sensibility there were no slaves to be used for field labour (most slaves had been in domestic service anyways). Slavery did still exist in the colonies however and Sir Thomas Bertram in the Austen book Mansfield Park has estates in Antigua that were worked by slaves.
Now some of this next information on who worked the land is going to come from a book on the Georgian era but I don't think there should be too much difference from the Regency era of Jane Austen's novels. By 1790 around 3/4 of the land in England was farmed by tenant farmers. There was the possibility of this group becoming quite successful financially so that they themselves could afford to buy items owned by the gentry like silverplate and pianos. In Emma we see a tenant farmer who is well off financially in Robert Martin who has two parlors just like the Dashwood women. Beneath the tenant farmer there were farm labourers. They would make only enough to eke out a living. The work at times could also be seasonal. One rural Oxford labourer had Â£31 8s in expenses for his family and that was Â£5 more than he made. His family's diet included luxuries like tea, sugar, and meat, but most survived on bread, cheese, and cold fare. The hardships of the lowest agriculturalists was made worse by the practice of enclosure which took the common land that had previously been provided by the landowner for his tenants and workers to use and allowed it to be directly farmed by the owner. This increased crop yields but left a large population of people landless. These people eventually started to move to places of industrialization and worked in the new factories that started to appear. The appearance of factories also worsened the plight of the rural poor because piece work that they had done before, like lace making or weaving, could now be made much faster by machines. If go several decades past the time of Sense and Sensibility by 1850 only 22% of the workforce would still be in agriculture.

Sources:

English Society in the 18th Century by Roy Porter

...more
Nov 19, 2018 09:16AM · flag

More questions about Sense and Sensibilityâ€�

Sense and Sensibility

by Jane Austen

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

About Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Q&A

Ask and answer questions about books!

You can pose questions to the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.

See Featured Authors Answering Questions