The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 2
Causes of Difference
Causes of Difference.
Causes of Difference.
Causes of Difference.
Where a very marked difference is observed in the conditions of one and more countries, the political inquirer instinctively looks about for other differences, and on finding them concurrent in all cases, connects them together as cause and effect. In the case therefore of land ownership, it is not strange that we should at once have our attention called to the fact, that this country differs not only in its condition but in its laws; while in every other country above referred to, the laws either give no sanction to the accumulation of landed property upon eldest sons, or, as in the case of France and some others, compel its distribution equally among all the children on the death of their parent, and generally offer no facilities for the maintenance of property in particular families by means of entails, in this country the law gives prominent sanction to the one practice and facilities for the other.
Causes of Difference.
According to this school the existing tendency will be carried much further, and we may look forward, as wealth increases in this country, to the gradual but certain extinction of those few small ownerships of land which still exist in rural districts, and to the absorption of all small estates in larger properties; and they preach the doctrine that the further this monopoly of land, as they frankly admit it to be, is carried, the better will it be for the country, as the better prospect there will be of the duties of landlords being carried out. Land is, and should be, in this view, an article of luxury which only the rich can afford to hold; and it is only to be expected, and is certainly to be desired, that the smaller proprietors should convert their capital as landowners into tenants' capital, by selling their land and becoming the tenants of five times as much land as they could hold as owners.
Causes of Difference.
Causes of Difference.
The price of land in rural districts of France is generally forty years' purchase of the annual value, and often more. The peasants are not without appreciation of other investments giving higher returns; it is well known that the great loans raised of late years to meet the war expenses and the German indemnity, have been mainly raised from the savings of the peasants; they are not the less ready however to purchase land returning one-half less interest. M. de Laverne has shown that the common statement about the indebtedness of the small proprietors in France is not true; the mortgages on their properties average no more than ten per cent, of the value of the land.
The same may be said of Holland, a country where there is more accumulation of savings than in any other part of Europe; whose inhabitants are accustomed to lend out money to every borrowing power in Europe, and often in loans of the most risky nature. They appear none the less able to understand the value of safe investments in land at a very low return. Land is even more valued by the small capitalist than by the wealthy.
Causes of Difference.
So far then from being able to draw any conclusions from other countries in favour of the proposition that with advancing civilisation and with increasing wealth and luxury, land tends to fall into fewer hands and to become more exclusively the luxury of a particular class, the very reverse is the case; and everywhere we find other classes competing for land with the wealthy, and giving for it prices, which would be considered very high even in this country.
We are not, however, left to the resource only of comparing existing things and tendencies in other countries with what we experience in this country; we are also able to point to the changes which have been made in those countries, with the very object of bringing about their present state, and of avoiding the condition which this country presents.
Causes of Difference.