While there is an extensive historiography which explores English agriculture in the nineteenth
century there has been less attention paid to individual estates and in particular the role of
the land agent within their management administration and participation in rural community
relationships. Nowhere is this more obvious in the lack of research into the financial history
of the landed estate even though in the early nineteenth century these were some of the
largest businesses in England. The Castleman letters are a rich source which detail the
intricate working financial social and political relationships which constituted the
foundation of the landed estate. The vouchers of which more than 10 000 have survived alongside
the rental accounts have rarely been examined. On their own they illustrate for example: the
sums paid out on maintenance the interest payments on mortgages charitable expenditure
spending on property repairs and one-off payments for a wide and diverse range of items.
Together with the diurnal correspondence all three aspects of the archive detail the daily
financial undertakings and form the foundation of a new financial history of the estate. This
book will show that estate management was underpinned by an inherent understanding of the
financial decisions which needed to be taken and will be of interest to academics and
researchers of financial history.
