Lord Cane's Acts

DATES TO BE AMENDED

The First Agricultural Practices Act, 3 Edm. VIII, p. 132, the Regulation of Goods and Trade Act, 11 Edm. IX, p. 15 and the Second Agricultural Practices Act, 33 Edm. IX. p. 92, together known as Lord Cane's Acts, are Acts of the Parliament of Great Nortend which impose restrictions on the import and sale of certain goods, use of machinery and agricultural practices in Great Nortend. The first Act prohibits the use of “novel agricultural practices” by farmers without a Royal licence, specifically proscribing the use of “mechanical or fumous engines or any other proscribed contraption” in the cultivation of land, sowing of seeds and harvest of crops. The latter Act prohibits the import and sale of “novel technological innovations” without a Royal licence. The latter Act also regulates minimum wages, although it has been largely superseded in practice by the Quantum Meruit Act, 12 Cath. II, p. 128.

Together, the Acts have fundamentally shaped Great Nortend since the 20th century, leading to its retention of sundry 19th century practices and equipment which would have otherwise fallen out of general use.

Background

During the 19th century, the speed of technological advancement grew ever-quicker as the Industrial Revolution and mechanisation gathered pace. Abroad, this led to massive changes in lifestyle as people migrated en masse from the countryside to the cities and towns, causing a collapse in the supply of labour in the agricultural industry. The nature of landholding in Great Nortend meant that this was less marked in Great Nortend, but by the 1850s, there was growing discontent by both landlords and tenants over the feudal system which stymied growth and innovation given the law's presumption of mediaeval technology.

This led to the Manorial Reform Act, 31 Guliel. II, p. 173 being passed by the government of the Viscount of Lortfey, which gave cottagers greater rights against their lords. However, this meant it became less desirably for lords to retain the labour of cottagers as opposed to free labourers. While cottagers held their tenancies for life, lords were free to refuse their heirs livery of seisin, to inherit the cottage. By 1870, over 10 per cent of heirs to cottages had already been refused livery of seisin by landlords on account of their labour being no longer needed and thus escheated to the landlord, and another 20 per cent of cottages were earmarked for escheat upon the deaths of of their current tenants, to be replaced by tenants for years and free labourers.

The resulting former cottagers had been forced to leave and seek employment in towns, generally in the new factories and enterprises which had sprung up during the century. Yet the lack of general entitlement to companies of limited liability compounded by imposition of no-fault and vicarious liability in tort meant that it was difficult for factories and enterprises to succeed in the crowded market. Many collapsed in the Depression of the 1880s and their erstwhile employees plunged into abject poverty. This led to the first Agricultural Practices Act of 1893, which managed to make minor reforms in the use of dangerous machinery and to stem the flow of workers leaving the countryside by forbidding the refusal of livery of seisin to the heirs of life tenants with the intent to hire free labourers instead.

Nonetheless, discontent began to rise over the next few decades as conflict between some lords and their cottagers grew. Furthermore, at the same time, more efficient farm mechanisation advanced, meaning heirs could be refused livery and an unscrupulous farmer not even need to employ a free labourer in his stead to make up the deficit. This threatened to cause mass migration from the country into the towns and cities, and subsequent social upheaval. The Royal Countryside Society under the patronage of Lucilia of Exponent launched a public scare campaign against the use of mechanical farm equipment on fields, claiming that the fumes were toxic and threatened the wholesomeness of Nortish produce. Famously, the then-Princess Lucilia refused to eat a salad allegedly sourced from a farm which used motor tractors, claiming that she could „detect an unwholesome air” about the lettuce, later described as being the „air of unemployment and countryside malaise”. A Royal Commission into the matter was announced and returned proposals to restrain certain types of mechanisation in agriculture for the sake of public health and the health of the land, as well as in order to limit the loss of farm labouring jobs.

The Second Agricultural Practices Bill was introduced by the Foide government in 1935 as one of his first acts as Lord High Treasurer. Despite strong opposition from the Droughers, it was passed by a majority of three in the Houses of Commons and of one in the House of Lords, Lord Cane finally agreeing to support the bill after days of negotiation. Royal assent was granted and the Great Seal affixed on Ladymas that year.