Cattle Prices Quotes

“Landowners were indeed guilty of an astonishingly myopic cupidity, as exposed by the Reverend John Macdonald of Alvie in 1835. During the war, he pointed out, local rents had 'more than tripled', but 'the price of cattle and sheep was so high, that the tenants were enabled the bear these heavy burdens'. Twenty years on, however, 'it is entirely out of their power to pay the rents then imposed upon them. Since the peace, the price of cattle has been so much reduced, that sometimes three can scarcely be sold at the price formerly received for one; while the rent continue still the same.' Arrears, he predicted, would soar and tenants go bankrupt until landowners eventually fell victim to their own policies.”
― David Taylor, 'The People Are Not There': The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863