How did the “Income” of rich people mentioned in the literature of 19th-century work?

Question

When reading a book like the Count of Monte Chriato or Scherlock Holmes, they mention that this and this person has an income of 4000 pounds and that person will have this and this income when she marries.

How does that work? Most of these people do not do any actual job.

In: 669

Answer 1

Usually, they are landlords. They own big swaths of land, and have tenants (including tenant farmers) who pay them rent. They may also have other forms of wealth that generate income, like stocks or bond, but until the 20th century, most wealth was held in the form of land. Novels by Anthony Trollope tend to be more explicit than most from that era about the exact nature of characters’ wealth.