In most of England, a three-tier rural social system of landlords, tenant farmers and landless wage labourers was already established. But before 1760 there were few entirely landless people in the Scottish countryside. Even rural tradesmen normally had a patch of land, much of the farm labour force was recruited from cottar families with access to some land, and even landless farm servants were often born into cottar households, with some of them then taking on a smallholding at marriage.
