Time Series on leasehold rent, market society, and agricultural development. Five noble estates between the Rhine and Weser Rivers, 16th to 19th centuries.

The Data has been collected in the framework of the DFG-Project "Reale Bodenrenten in Westfalen, 16. bis frühes 20. Jahrhundert" (real land pensions in Westfalia, 16th to the early 20.th century) under the leadership of Prof. Ulrich Pfister, University of Muenster. The Primary-Researchers Johannes Bracht and Ulrich Pfister analyzed in their Study (2019) the Development of real land pensions in Westfalia under the conditions of agricultural modernization, market integration, and population development. Agricultural lease of the five agricultural properties or estates Anholt, Nordkirchen, Assen, Wewer, and Benkhausen (listed from west to east), are the data-basis for the analysis. The data has been collected from the archival files on land pensions (called ´Rentei´), aggregated to indices which have been deflationated under the use of agricultural price indices. The quality and quantity of available sources were decisive for the final selection of the five estates. Additionally, the selection reflects partly the differences of the Westfalian cultural landscape. The research data, which are the basis of the constructed indices and of the resulting analysis are available under the DOI: 10.4232/1.13132. The offered time series contains the following data: a) descriptive statistics of the collected data, b) nominal leasing rents calculated according to four different calculation methods for each estate respectively, c) an aggregated nominal leasing index of all five estates, d) a Grain- and production price index on the level of Westfalia, and finally e) Real lease indices partly on an annual basis, partly in 5-year periods. The period under investigation is from 1558 to 1918.