LAND and LIBERTY

SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER. 1987 UK 80p. USA $1 50

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.—JANUARY 26, 1884.

W -y- y >. , • * ' rWr Li #»r i LT| , | wt M p •• i j',, i. , •iii'j Jp-^iV/l.

v! M

Wiry

• THE PUNCH VIEW OF 'S INFLUENCE LAND and LIBERTY Site value tax Established June 1894 Editor: Fred Harrison Editorial Consultant: V. H. Blundell to the rescue! Picture Editor: Keith Hammett Editorial Offices: THE QUEEN, apeaking for the falls equally on land and build- 177 Vauxhall Bridge Road, British government, has decreed inga, which haa been subjected to London SWIV 1EU Tel: 01 834 4266 that legislation will now be intro- a great deal of criticiam. It is true that some of that criti- 5 East 44th Street, duced toabolish the tax on homes. New York, N Y. I0017 Let battle be enjoined I cism has been pathetic, and fo- Tel: 212 697 9880 Premier Margaret Thatcher cuses mainly on the alleged plight ISS No. 0023 7574 rushed the legislation through for of the "little old widow" living Vol. XC1II Scotland in time for the June 11 alone in a big house: she has to Nos. 1,120 & 1,121 General Election, on the assump- pay the same tax as the man next Annual subscription: tion that this would win votes for door whose two strapping sons U.K. & Sterling area: £5 are earning wagea. USA J10, Canada $11 the Tories. It was a bad miscel- culation: the Conservative Party THE WIDOW enjoys the sama north of the border was deci- amount of police and fire protec- mated. tion for her property as her neigh- The same will probably happen bour; and her sewage system is in England and Walea in four years no cheaper to service just because time, for the introduction of the she lives alone. And what of the poll tax — in place of the property locally-financed health services? tax — will make low-income As an elderly widow, she is likely to use them more then the young, The Battling Professor 67 families suffer. healthy family. • A study in the county of Fertile Farm Thoughts There might be legitimate dif- Cleveland showed that 64% of Duncan Pickard 68 ferences of opinion over the cost households will pay more under of education. The widow does not Disappointing "Cavalier" the poll tax; and they contain 65% go to school — but unless she is Peter Poole 69 of the electorate. e spinster, her children once upon Hooray for Harry • Another study revealed that e time did do so. at no extra cost 39 constituencies — all but seven to her family budget at thet timel Robert Clancy 70 of them Conservative-controlled But to overcome the argument on Syndicated Shame — face increases of more than this point, why not transfer the 70 16%. and in all cases over 66% of cost of State education to the the electorate will be worae off. central exchequer? Sun Yat Sen Sense! The poll tax will unite the Ken Grigg 72 Labour, Uberal and Social Demo- THE GOVERNMENT - this one. George and the Scots crat parties. The public will soon or the next — will probably capi- realise that they are being sold an John D. Wood 74 tulate and bring back the property anti-social change to the tax tax. That ia why reform era must Poll Tax Sizzle system. devote ell their energies to pub- Robert Miller 77 And like the peasants of 1380 licising the virtues of a tax that — they revolted, and Richard II falls exclusively on site velues. Common Law Roots chopped off the heada of some of There is little need to attack the Edgar Buck 78 his ministers for brewing the poll tax. except in passing: every- trouble which disturbed his king- one else will do that. Nor is then Agriculture Aggro dom —the voters are likelyto turn need to attack proposals like the Roy Douglas 80 away from the Toriea in droves. local income tax (advocated by the Liberals) which will be dis- missed as just as unacceptable. COVER STORY SO WHAT is the alternative? A clear case for site value taxa- • HENRY GEORGE'S Progress and Poverty Whitehall bureaucrats cannot bridged the intellectual and class divides when tion must be defined in attractive propose an effective substitute. it was published in 1879. His tour of the British form, so that politicians of aH Isles had an enormous political impact. Early But the Opposition will have to hues, including Tory backbench- commentators were not sure how to classify advocate a coherent reform of the ers — end the profession el in- his philosophy — outright (which way in which local authoritieacan George rejected as a waste-of-time solution to stitutions. which ere the problems of industrial society) or un- finance their services from their wholly geinst the poll tax — < ashamed free marketeer (which he was — but own revenue. So they must be with relief grasp a practical sub- he insisted on the need to socialise rental persuaded to advocate a rational stitute to the policies thet ere income for the equal benefit of all citizens). reform of the property tax. now on offer, and which threaten Punch satirised the debate on its front page in to turn local finance into a 1884 ... the wolf keeps his copy of Henry The politiciana will certainly not George's Progress and Poverty tuckcd away in suggest a return to the tax which shambles. his pocket.

66 LAND A LIBERTY" Free-market Gaffney

ACADEMIC freedom is at slake in a battle between Pro- fessor Mason Gaffney and the corporate interests linked to the University of California at Riverside. Professor GafTney teaches economics. He labels himself fights for as a Jeffersonian free marketeer whose strictures against monopolists has brought him into conflict with the major vested interests — and particularly those who own land and rake in fortunes from public subsidies. Two years ago attempts were made to deprive Professor GafTney of one of his platforms: he was offered a shortened two-year term — instead of the usual four-year term — on freedom the influential Public Utilities Board. His opponents claimed that he had a poor attendance record. Professor GafTney countered by bluntly saying the charge was a lie. The head of the local Chamber of on all fronts Commerce, Art Pick, attacked by claiming that "Everyone around here knows that Gaffney does not under- way in which agri-business used the stand economics". university for its commercial ends. His backers, including an econ- "The agri-business giants get their omics professor from California way in these parts," he says. "They State University at Fullerton, say try to paint themselves as self-reliant that Gaffney's alleged absences were frontiersmen, but a more accurate a "red herring" designed to discredit depiction would be a welfare-taker. him because of his straight talk. "Agricultural people see this place Professor Gaffney is an authority as a big industrial laboratory to serve on the economics of natural re- agriculture. The university has be- sources. He has testified to Con- come an attachment to the industry, gressional committees, and pub- and it shares its viewpoints and lished many authoritative papers on vested interests." the subject. He was hired 10 years • Professor Getfney Now Professor Gaffney has been ago to strengthen the university's barred from teaching resource econ- economics department. omics — the result, he believes, of his That was when he stirred up a retaliated and was quoted as charac- outspoken views about local water hornets' nest. He outspokenly em- terising small businesses as "para- and land policies. ployed a radical analysis of private sites". The economics department has property rights in land, which was • Gaffney attacked the local poli- acquired a reputation over the years originally articulated by Henry ticians who, working with the Metro- for its Marxist bias. And this has George in Progress and Poverty. politan Water District Board, forced Professor GafTney to fight on Professor GafTney commended the borrowed heavily to finance irri- a second front: against the lecturers free market in which the small entre- gation systems which push up rural who want to turn the department preneur could flourish without land prices. into "a monolithic, intolerant bas- governmental interference. He advocated free-market water tion for a single ideology". And that was bound to lead to a pricing, to conserve water. Lois But it seems that, when it comes to clash. For, as Peter Asmus, writing in Krieger, a member of the MWD a choice between marketeers and The Orange County Register, noted: board, retaliated by claiming that Marxists, the tax-subsidised entre- "It was these beliefs that threaten the Gaffney's free-market concepts did preneurs know where their interests very fabric of life here in the 'Inland not belong "in the real world". lie. After investigating the row, Peter Empire', where things like huge Krieger is also a member of the Asmus concluded that Professor governmental subsidies for big cor- University of California Riverside Gaffney's days at the university are porate and agricultural outfits have Foundation, a group of wealthy numbered. become institutionalized practices." university patrons who cncourage "Riverside's university and busi- • GafTney attacked the low utility the university to undertake research ness community would, it seems, rates paid by Rohr Industries, the on behalf of commercial and indus- prefer to work with Marxists whose giant aeroplane engine manufactur- trial enterprises. Professors share in teachings are delegated to the ivory ers and the largest employer in the the profits of their inventions. towers of the classroom, than a free- area. Professor Gaffney, a small farmer speaking free-marketeer who tries to Small businesses, he said, ought to in his own right, did not court popu- apply his ideals and theories to the get some rate relief instead Pick larity when he bluntly exposed the local economy."

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 67 The Return Of The Wild is an attempt by Tony Crofts to examine the problems of farm- Fertile thoughts ing in the U.K. in the context of the whole economy and its inter-relations with other livestock farming over the last means of ending the monopoly countries. Whereas it is com- hundred years, depending on on land ownership and of mon to find agricultural the prevailing economic winds. increasing the opportunity for problems discussed in very Forestry is potentially the most more people to enjoy the narrow terms, likewise "hous- suitable option for future countryside. ing", "unemployment" and diversification in this area. The effects of grants and "balance of trade", Tony A recurrent theme appears subsidies on agriculture are Crofts believes these things throughout this book which not, on balance, seen as being profoundly affect one another. sees the question of land beneficial because of their Of the various options for ownership as central to the effects on land prices and rents, agriculture in an age of product solution of agricultural prob- but this is considered to be surpluses and reductions in lems, not only in this country relatively insignificant com- grants and subsidies, Tony but throughout the world. As pared with the influence of tax Crofts assesses the potential long as individuals are allowed incentives, especially tax relief for organic farming and for - even encouraged - to regard on mortgage interest, on forestry. Both options are land as a reservoir of capital property prices. This has limited by economic con- rather than the essential basis meant that the fixed costs in straints. Only owner-occupiers of human life which is a agriculture are very much with no bank loan can afford to common heritage of all, there higher *han they should be. contemplate organic farming will be major conflicts over Thi,. book differs from and small-scale forestry is im- land use. others on the same topic be- possible without considerable The gap in status between cause it not only describes the financial assistance-especially those who own land and those problems but offers a realistic in the early stages. who are denied access to it will and attainable pathway to- It is the considered opinion continue to grow. It is inevit- wards their solution; that is, of Tony Crofts that the Eastern able, given the present taxation the collection in taxes of the Counties will remain in cereal system, that the large farmers annual land value which has production and the hills and will get larger as grants and been generated not by the uplands in livestock rearing. It subsidies are removed. owners of land but by the rest is that enormous wedge of land Land nationalisation is of society. clearly seen as a detrimental between these two which will DUNCAN PICKARD see the biggest need for change and entirely unnecessary move, - that area which has drifted to and Tony Crofts opts for the •Friendly Press. Home Close. High St. and fro between arable and taxation of land values as a Stonesfield. Oxford 0X7 2PU i5

Dear Sir, Your reviewer's article May- The thought ot Henry George is June 1987 on a booklet written by Jo- important Site value taxation is pro- seph Comby and mysell about "I'impdt • LETTER bably the most satisfactory device on a toncier" in France was aggressive in theoretical point of view. Its imple- character, and I think that some mis- tax. which we consider as "le meilleur mentation nevertheless raises a lot ot understanding can explain some ot the impdt communal" (p 113). ditficulties comments 4) The coherence between the dit- Vincent Renard. 1) We are supposed to "consider terent obiectives ot a land tax is not at Laboratoire DEconometrie that land is simply another form ot cap- all evident, as can be seen in numerous De L'tcole. Polytechnique, Paris ital". Pp. 121-123 clearly express an countries including Japan. Germany. opposite point ot view, including a Great Britain. United States and Quotation ot Henry George s obviously France • Reviewer LYNNE NICHOLS writes 2) The French expression "impdt Your reviewer's point a) reveals a If there were any misunderstandings toncier" is commonly used lor both misunderstanding ot our point Saying on my part. I feel that these were only land-value tax and property tax. as "un impdt qui mange son assiette. we where I had to guess when the authors explained on pp 41-42 The role ot mean that a tax on development land, if were using "impdt foncier" to mean Chapter 1 ("Les principaux types d'lm- successful as an incentive to develop land value taxation and when they p6t foncier dans le mond") is precisely this land, will bring limited proceeds were using it to mean "property tax" — to show the variety ot meanings ot Point b) can be illustrated tor ex- hence the importance of defining one s "impdt foncier" throughout the world, ample by tax exemptions used a$. an terms In many cases, it was clear including site-value taxation, which. I incentive to keep private lands as open enough from the context, but in some think, is the most satisfactory device space when such land, owned by rich cases I may have guessed wrong I did 3) We are supposed to draw "totally people, has a high market value not think I did so. however, in relation erroneous conclusions "from the state- Our book is an attempt to give an to their conclusions ment ot the complexity and administra- overview ot the "impdt toncier" in Mr Renard translates the phrase tive cost ot the "imp6t toncier" in France, with its numerous drawbacks "manger son assiette as giving "limit- France . The realmainconclusioncan and shortcomings, and to suggest that ed proceeds My understanding of the be found on pp.111-119. where we there were other ways of thinking and term is wider — i e . that these limited propose a set of improvements in order implementing land taxation proceeds" result because the asset is to establish a more satisfactory land Land taxation is a dithcult sub/ect all the time diminishing in value

68 LAND A LIBERTY" • PETER POOLE dissects Mark Blaug's Economic Theory in Retrospect, Cam- bridge University Press, Fourth edn., 1985.

ECONOMISTS tend to ignore land in their text books At best the student can expect a brief formal treatment of the subject, grudgingly incorporated for the sake of apparent completeness. Books on the history of economic thought ought to be different, however, because they have to provide an explicit treatment of the classical economists who analysed land as one of the three factors of production. Historians, alas, also now tend to neglect land, which is why the fourth edition of Blaug's book promised to be refreshingly honest. In his introduction the professor, who teaches at the University of London Institute of Education and University of Buckingham, states that he introduced "an entirely new chapteron the history of location theory, a subject almost totally neglected in rival histories of economic thought, which is of great interest in its own right and also serves to e Robert Andelson — "exemplary explain the recent emergence of urban and regional economics as specialized treatment of his subject'' fields of study." Professor Gaffney's trenchant critique told us why economists down-graded land as a subject for serious study: they were either opponents of Henry George, LET DOWN BY the American economic philosopher, or they accepted distortion as a way of heightening the importance of their own perspectives A 'CAVALIER' Blaug was going to be differentl Our test was his treatment of Henry George, the most famous of land economists Blaug turned out to be a disappointment was never seriously discussed." Blaug shoots himself It is not true that George's proposal for a Single Tax in his foot, by adding a footnote which explained that on the economic rent of land "was widely misunder- "All the leading British and American economists of stood. partly because of his clumsy exposition, as the day — Alfred Marshall. Francis Walker. Edwin advocating nationalisation. In point of fact, he only pro- Seligman. Thomas Carver, and Richard Ely — wrote posed to tax pure rents, exempting the returns from site extensive critiques of George " This grudging refer- improvements" (emphasis added) ence was forced out of Blaug because he was obliged to This is an offensive textual criticism; even George's take into account Professor Andelson's exemplary enemies acknowledged that his exposition was one of treatment of the subject. ' his virtues None other than Leo Tolstoy eulogised The powerful influence of George's theoretical work Henry George's literary talents In a letter written to can be inferred from these references in Blaug's book: Moscow on April 27. 1894. Tolstoy referred to • "The Fabian Essays, in which Sidney Webb and G. George's Social Problems, which was written in an B Shaw fused Ricardo's theory of rent as reworked by "exceptional manner (unparalleled in scientific litera- Henry George ..." ture) clear, popular and forcible, in which he stated his • "It was the rise of Marxism and Fabianism in the cause — and especially by (what is also exceptional in 1880s and 1890s that finally made subjective value scientific literature) the Christian spirit that permeates theory socially and politically relevant; as the new the whole work. After reading it I went back to his economics began to furnish effective intellectual earlier Progress and Poverty, and still more deeply ammunition against Marx and Henry George, the view appreciated the importance of its author's activity".2 that value theory really did not matter became more It is not true that "the concept of site value taxation difficult to sustain." Unfortunately, students of economic history will be swayed by Professor Blaug's reading of Progress and Poverty He believes that George failed to convey his message: "What George was after was to destroy land specu- • WORLD BRIEFS * lation, and he should have devoted all his energies to clarifying the distinction between a tax on 'site values' CANADA: Montreal realtor Ber- ment scheme for landless and and a tax on 'betterment'. But this aspect of his nard Senez seeks Sim compens- novice farmers argument was little developed in Progress and ation for being "ripped-ofT' on a Poverty." sixties land deal The option he ENGLAND: Prince Charles, This is such a breath takingly cavalier treatment of his bought on 3 2m sq feet of land louring Fast ijtndon ilums. con- book that one is tempted to suspect that Blaug has not lapsed *hen he h as unable to sell fessed to being appalled" A read it On reflection, it would have been better if Blaug the sue Former colleagues ob- Bengali-run leather workshop had tained the option, and the land »as din hanging from the ceilings had left well alone, and produced the standard — partial "flipped" - sold and resold - The} are working and living in — treatment of the history of economic theory Anyone ending up HI/A U Bermuda-based conditions almost as bad at those interested in the subject can do no better than to company » hich sold to the Quebec on the Indian sub-continent." said consult the works of Professors Gaffney and Andelson. government for $2 1m A royal the prince commission found the Quebec • • • authorities had been swindled of REFERENCES versity of Wisconsin Press CHINA: Peking's economic lib- almost S750.000 »hen it bought at 1982 eralisation - farmers can no* 66 cents a sq ft instead of Senez' s 1 Mason Galfney Two Centu- The Works of Leo Tolstoy. Vol obtain l}-)*ar leases to harvest ries of Economic Thought on 1 Essays and Letters trans 35 cents asking price their oHi plots - has created a Taxation of Land Rents in lated by Ayimer Maude. Ox • • • baby boom The ne* prosperity Richard W Lindholrn and ford UP 1911 p 215 means that mandatory fines Arthur D Lynn. Jnr Land R V Andelson Editor. Critics NAMIBIA: The \ational Assem- ot Henry George. Fairteigh against couples »ho have more Value Tanahon The Progress bly has been told by Minister of and Poverty Centenary. Uni Dickinson. UP 1979 Agriculture Jan de Wet thai its than one child can be paid out of biggest challenge a the resettle- higher incomes

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 69 By ROBERT CLANCY Mixing with a

IF IT WERE asked who was the most outstanding econo- mics professor who made land NEW STUDY OF HARRY GUNNISON BROWN value taxation the cornerstone of his teaching, the answer Davenport and John R. Com- George, Brown was not a thor- would be Harry Gunnison mons. They also agreed with land oughgoing "single taxer", but he Brown who died 12 years ago, value taxation, at least to a great did advocate that income from site extent. Those who disputed this aged 95. values should constitute the first view included and Professor for many years, source of public revenue, and that Willford I. King. author of several books and ar- other taxes should be eliminated ticles, Brown is at last the sub- IN ALL his works on the subject to the extent possible. ject of a new book outlining his of taxation. Brown argued strong- Also, he did not go all the way economic teachings.* His influ- ly for greater land value taxation with George in citing land specu- ence has been more pervasive than and against taxes on production, lation as a basic cause of the is generally recognized, many of using economic arguments that business cycle; and he had re- his students having gone on to impressed colleagues even when servations about George's refuta- notable careers, and his many as- they refuted his conclusions. tion of Malthus. sociations with well-known eco- Though an admirer of Henry Nevertheless, Brown did regard nomists are cited in this book. counted him among the prominent American economists born after 1860. Author Christopher K. Ryan offers a brief biography, then con- siders various phases of Brown's DELAYED teaching. The core of his career was at the , WALL Street Journal headline where he headed the Department By "Land Partner ship Drawing of Economics, spanning 1915- New Interest As Tax Overhaul 1947. Earlier he taught at Yale, Hurts Lure Of Shelters. " (March STEVE and later at the New School in 24, 1987). New York and Franklin and Mar- It turns out that a growing num- CORD shall College in Pennsylvania. ber of syndicators are sailing land While at the latter, he worked to partnerships to both well-heeled and modest-income investors. producers — it is landowners of all promote the adoption of land Today, 64 syndicators are selling sorts. It's just that speculators are value taxation. these partnerships, up from only the most egregious type of land- Brown stayed with the classical three in 1984. Many say they owning robbers. tradition and accepted land, lab- hope for annual returns of 20% to Take the case of Clifford Tracy, 30% when the land is sold. our and capital as the factors of a Costa Mesa. Calif, accountant It's better in this game to be who thinks the time is ripe to production, and rent, wages and well-heeled rather than modest- invest in land. He recently put interest as their returns. He dis- income, since land properties •20,000 in a partnership syndi- approved of the innovation of may have to be held for many cated by TMP Properties. Inc. that and others in years before they can be sold at owns undeveloped land near such profit margins. You have to Riverside, Calif. The property is a confounding land and capital and have staying power. good investment. Mr. Tracy says, in blurring "economic rent" as a And moral blindness. Such land because it's in the so-called "In- return to any factor of production speculators have not created the land Empire", one of the last open above a marginal return. His con- land from which they profit so areas in southern California with ception of land was "land space" much — God did that, presumably affordable housing for workers. for all of us to have equal access which was fixed and non-repro- Those homes for workers will to. They profit but have not pro- now be a lot less affordable be- ducible. duced. so necessarily the real pro- cause of landowners like Mr. Economists who basically ducers give up to do-nothing Tracy, but no doubt he is not agreed with Brown included H.J. landowners some of what they aware of that. have produced. Mr. Tracy doesn't mind tying up Note that it is not just land his money for three to five years 'Harry Gunnison Brown, Economist, By Chri»- speculators who rob from the real topher K. Ryan. Westview Press, Boulder and until the land is sold to a developer London. 1987. J23.50.

70 LAND A LIBERTY" Missouri marvel

land value taxation as important utility rates. He was a monetarist, that it partook of mathematical enough to cover fully in one of his collaborated with , precision. (I can vouch for that, best-known works. The Economic and his views were commended by having heard him lecture.) He Basis of Tax Reform. This in- Milton Friedman. While oppos- stressed objectivity in his teach- cluded the place of land in econo- ing the Keynesians, Brown ings, but still sought to bring out mic theory, the concept of rent, thought they ought to recognize issues of economic rights and the economic effects of land value that higher land value taxation wrongs. taxation, and strategies on pro- and reduced taxes on capital moting the measure. would remedy someof the ills they THOUGH Brown covered the Brown considered landholding cited and raise the return on entire field of economics. Mr. a privilege which land value taxa- capital investment. Ryan brings out clearly that land tion would remove. He criticised Brown ranged over the field of value taxation was his most not- the proposal to tax only future economics in The Basic Principles able interest, and that he is mostly increments of land values as av- of Economics, long used as a text- remembered today for his advo- oiding the issue of "vested rights" book He was much admired as a cacy of the measure and his argu- in land, which he challenged. teacher. It was said that even ments with other economists He was also an advocate of free though he did not emphasize about it. It was a great disappoint- international trade. He did im- mathematics in his work, his ex- ment to him that economists in portant work on the regulation of position was so clear and precise general did not accept the policy. Brown found their objections un- sound. His career was in the genera- tion after Henry George when there was lingering hostility ROBBERY among economists which was in- herited from those of George's generation against this amateur at what ha expects will be a hand- be efficiently used This by itself some profit. "My potential return would spur economic growth upstart. That period is over and will more than make up for the now there is the possibility of a • Here we go again with an- loss of cash flow." he says. His other speculative land boom (no more objective look at land value annual rate of return on a previous doubt we are in the midst of one taxation. land Investment with the Orange. already, but now a new spurt). It While most of today's "main- Calif.-based TMP was more than can only be abetted by a monetary 12%, Mr. Tracy adds. stream" economists are not en- inflation, which seems to be thusiastic advocates of land value Ws ask the resder to imagine an looming on the horizon. The inev- economy where there is no Isnd itable BUST/CRASH will fol- taxation, neither are they parti- •peculation because the annual low. sending non-LVT econo- cularly hostile. They concede that land-rent is being collected by the mists scurrying all over to come the has merit, is government in lieu of taxes on up with morsels of truth to explain neutral, is not a charge on wages, buildings, sales and other why it happened. Meanwhile, the production and that it cannot be labor-produced incomes. There basic land cause was right in front would be no land speculation then of their eyes, too big for them to shifted. There is also some recog- because there would be no an- see nition of land value taxation as an nual land income available to a instrument in urban renewal. speculator, or to sny landowner, • The robbery of producers by Economists who more strongly for that matter. non-producing landholders would advocate the measure include • Workers would than be able suddenly cease Mason Gaffney, William Peirce to afford better or cheaper hous- Note that we do not call private ing, since they would not have to landownership into question, and Roger Sandilands. psy land-speculation costs. only untaxed private landowner- An impressive bibliography ship coupled with the taxation of • Accountants such as Clifford and citation of economists in Mr. privately produced wages and Tracy would pay no taxes on their labor-produced capital invest- Ryan's book attest to the extent wages; nor would other workers. ment. of Brown's work, influence and • The return to labor would go Now. dear reader, what do you associations. We are indebted to up. thereby increasing privste in- intend to do about all this? One Christopher Ryan for offering an centive and initiative, thus also hundred and fifty years ago. overview of this remarkable man economic growth with less un- would you have stood aside in the employment and poverty. Great Campaign to Abolish and his teachings and for helping • if taxed, land would have to Slavery? the world to remember Harry Gunnison Brown.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 71 Far East should swallow doc's AT THE TURN of the century, Germany had a concession at Tsingtao in Northern China, a coastal fishing village. The intention was to build a port to service an inland mining operation. It was recognized early that there would be the danger of the economic value of anticipated development in the region being speculatively capitalized into a "futures market" in the selling price of land. This would stultify development and economic viability. The German government appointed remedy once again! a diplomat, Dr Wilhelm Schrameier, to draw up a Land Ordinance for the Tsingtao region which would prevent any such anti-social outcome. conditions of livelihood, should share equitably in the eco- Starting from first principles, Dr Schrameier evolved a policy in which increases in the locational nomic benefits of those improvements. value of land would be socially channelled. Speculation would be rendered fruitless. SuE lIf ! The Australian "site value rating" system is tailor-made to There were two main elements to Dr Schrameier's ordinance: a tax of 6% per annum upon the the requirements of funding the capital costs of such develop- assessed value of land titles, and an incremental tax upon realized profits from the sale of land at the ScE iI S mental projects as the Taipei Rapid Transit system: time of sale. •f i1 • • Land valuations for each and every title to land should Dr Sun Yat Sen observed the Tsingtao ordinance in be assessed and kept up to date annually. operation in 1913, the success of which gave a practical boost • Valuations should preferably be expressed in terms of to his acceptance of Henry George's postulate that the value of ship of an widens and widens. That is the basic theme the annual rental value of the land, i.e., in terms of tangible land should be vested in public ownership (although, of through >u\ ieorge's writings. income flow, rather than in terms of static, lump sum "capital" course, the land could be privately held and used). The annual Dr St itU leier determined to come to terms with the prob- value. (This is preferable to Dr Schramcier's X% tax on capital land value tax element in Dr Schrameier's programme was de lem by . mli ng at precisely the same solution in the format of figures as it expresses the spirit of the proposal more directly, facto the social appropriation of the economic rent of land. his 6% al land value tax proposal - so that the whole i.e., the concept that rentals arise as a distributive portion of Dr Schrameier arrived at his proposal without prior know- commu til vould gain equity in all of those increases in the Gross National Income, being generated by the increased economies that new or better services provide. DrSchrameier's ledge of the detailed social philosophy that Henry George had utility, 11 lence value, of land that accompanied societal format of the tax would, nevertheless, of course have the same built upon the foundation of his "single tax" on the value of growth r.il Jevelopment. end effect.) land. The obvious need perceived by Dr Schrameier brought It is u fiji unate that Dr Sun had had no personal experience forth the obvious solution! of lane vfe ue taxation in Australia, particularly at the • An annual RATE of X cents in the dollar of assessed municif 1 (tvel, for therein he would have discovered that the annual rental value is "struck" in order to meet the require- ments of all capital expenditure and its servicing. DR SUN emphasized the dangers of land speculation in China, annual nt tax principle was long entrenched in "site value • The capital funding of the system is tangibly assured; especially in its major centres like Canton and Shanghai, in the rating" .s t e major source for municipal revenue. and the policy of funding capital by adding capital costs into exposition of his Third Principle in his SAN MIN CHU I consumer charges can be eradicated, thereby maximising con- lectures in 1924. He extolled the "land tax" as the method DR SC ij. MEIER'S ordinance was not primarily designed sumer patronage of the system. whereby the social infrastructure of cities could be developed as a re\ n I raiser. It was designed as a fiscal mechanism to Although the rental value of land in Taipei will go up and the environment enhanced, while avoiding the accumu- prevent h i ocial ravages of land speculation. Nevertheless a because the Rapid Transit System will generate tangible eco- lation of great private fortunes from unearned increment in land val e ; that is designed to be a substantial revenue raiser nomic benefits, nevertheless, with sufficient incidence of land land values. will, in t e,a t of yielding revenue to the community, deny that rental tax, the price of land as a capital (or, rather, "capital- Dr Sun emphasized the incremental land tax feature of Dr selfsame * enue to private landowners as an unearned ized") sum will not rise: there will be generalized community Schrameier's programme, rather than that of the recurrent income tf to the extent that land rentals were denied to enrichment instead of sectionalized, privatized, unearned annual land tax. This latter in Georgist theory, would have • Dr Sun Yat Sen private 1 wners, these could not be capitalized into selling capital gain. guaranteed to the community in perpetuity the revenue from prices. The same fiscal reasoning could also be applied immediately the rental value of land as a normal distributive share of the Indeet. t. : effective operation of the annual land tax would to the financing of the Sun Yat Sen Freeway, and to the other value of ongoing production. But J. S. Mill's proposal for an render th e in remental tax unnecessary because there would be major national projects, either completed or contemplated. incremental tax was a proposal which George, in his Progress very littbfr rement in the realisable selling price! A specific The Freeway has boosted the rental value of land from <& Poverty, had severely criticized as being inadequate. case in f t] t is the construction and financing of the Taipei Keelung to Kachsiung! Let the land rentals pay for the Free- The truth of George's contention has been borne out in Rapid T i Underground Railway. The immediate environ- way - and abolish the toll gates! Taiwan, where the high price of land in Taipei and other major mental em [ will be to greatly reduce the smog problem and to The Republic of China in Taiwan can pragmatically claim centres is a serious problem. Taiwan has undergone incredible facilitate J) lmuting. The immediate economic effect will be that its free entrepreneurial economy is superior to the Marxist evolution from a rural economy to a well advanced industrial to boost :jfc rental value of land in all of those areas of Taipei collectivism on the Chinese mainland. With that assessment economy in three decades. So has South Korea. But both need City - an J b-yond-wherein the environmental benefits will be Dr Sun Yat Sen would most assuredly have agreed. But to stop to study Japan in order to get a glimpse of what the future enjoyed. there is to express but half the truth - a "half truth." holds for them - unless they overcome the land price problem. Taiwanjlt all levels of administration needs to rediscover, If Taiwan, so full of promise in the Fifties and Sixties, is not In Japan a very ordinary apartment can cost 30.000,000 yen. appreciated apply the "Schrameier Principle". By that term to eventually become an "old" country with a stultified As Henry George said, the reason why real wages do not go up is implied ^he raising of public revenues from the land values economy like so much of the West, then, faithful to the dreams is precisely because the price of land does! Invention and social generated by social development. The physical engineering of of Dr Sun Yat Sen, it must solve its land problem. Dr development obviously increase general productivity and building infrastructure must be matched by the social engin- Schrameier long ago provided the model. Will the vision hence overall living standards, but the relative gap between eering of taxation policy, so that the people as a whole, in continue? »Sun Y«t Sen «t«tuo. s.n Frmcitco rent receivers and rent yielders in the context of private owner- contributing, by their presence, to the general improvements in

73 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 72 LAND & LIBERTY ON THE 6th of January 1884, a short, middle-aged American dismounted from the Liverpool train at Euston station to a tumultuous welcome from a 3,000 strong crowd. Hoisted onto the roof of a four wheel cab the American proclaimed the coming of "a great Grasp your revolution", then drove off to the hotel where he had been a guest for the past three days. Henry George, soon dubbed the Prophet of San Francisco by the Duke of Argyll, had well and truly "arrived". Of the steady stream of American social reformers thistle... who stumped Britain in the 19th century few occasioned so much controversy as Henry George. Almost completely forgotten now he was for a time • The author is a Scottish teacher. next to Gladstone the most talked about man in After receiving his M.A. from St. Britain. To his supporters he was a modern Wesley, Andrews University, where he ma- the "new St. Paul of the political world". jored in American History, he en- tered the North American Studies The established press dismissed him as a com- Programme at Edinburgh Univer- munist, a "yankee adventurer", and a "half-mad sity. His M. Litt. thesis compared demagogue". The debate centred on George's book the populist revolts of the Mid-west Progress and Poverty held by Alfred Russell Wallace and southern states of the U.S. with the land reform agitation of Ireland the land nationaliser to be "undoubtedly the most and the Scottish highlands and remarkable and important work of the century" and identified a transatlantic reform reviled in other quarters as the "bloodiest treatise community centring on the philo- since the Chartist movement". sophy of Henry George. Mr Wood's paper was published in the Scottish • John D. Wood Progress and Poverty was certainly that rare type of Historical Review (April 1984). book - a best selling work of political economy. With sales of over 100,000 copies in Britain alone it replaced Uncle Tom's Cabin as a trans-Atlantic close association with the quasi revolutionary Irish classic. It represented a skilful fusion of the orthodox Land League. He had spent much of 1882 in London economic theories of Ricardo and Mills with the and Ireland reporting the Irish Land War for the New more radical notion of natural rights. York Irish World. The Kilmainham Pact of May The book's starting point was man's God-given 1882 between the Irish leader Parnell and Gladstone's right to the land. Private property in land was unjust Liberal government dashed any hopes George enter- as it restricted access to the land. As technological tained that the largely nationalist movement might progress increased industrial production, the bene- provide a vehicle for radical land reform in Ireland. fits, George argued, went not to the labourers or even George remained friendly however with Michael to the capitalists but to the landlords in the form of Davitt the ex-Fenian founder of the Land League increased rent. who continued to urge land nationalisation. The remedy proposed in Progress and Poverty was On a jaunting car trip through the West of Ireland the raising by the state of a tax equivalent to the just prior to his return home in October 1882 George rental value of the land. Not only would this "single" was arrested and detained twice by a nervous con- tax compensate the poor labourer for his lost birth stabulary as "a stranger and a dangerous character." right to the land, but it would obviate the need for The publicity surrounding the arrests, which raised a other forms of taxation and be politically more storm in the House of Commons and led to an official acceptable than full land nationalisation. apology by Earl Granville the foreign minister to the In a Britain shaken by economic depression and United States government, brought George into the pre-occupied with the so-called "land question". political limelight as a vaguely menacing figure and Progress and Poverty was a literary bombshell. For heightened interest in Progress and Poverty. George the book was the culmination of a life of With his star rising George gained easy access to struggle and soul searching. It reflected his teenage liberal and radical circles in London. Helen Taylor rejection in Philadelphia of the formal religion of his the rather eccentric step-daughter of John Stuart parents which condoned slavery and his gradual Mill, embraced his teachings whole-heartedly. He commitment to a personal religion of social reform. struck up an uneasy friendship with the Marxist It drew also on his precarious early career as a Henry Hyndman who attempted over a number of journeyman printer and on his crusade in the 1870s as years to convert George to Socialism. Herbert editor of the San Franciscan Post against land Spencer, the philosopher, George dismissed as "most speculation and monopoly - evils he believed retar- horribly conceited", but he found Joseph Chamber- ded the settlement of California and brought the lain stimulating. The latter, "electrified" by Progress eastern disease of unemployment to the streets of San and Poverty, was shortly to introduce advanced land Francisco. reform measures into his Radical Programme. George's notoriety in Britain was due also to his The land campaign George mounted between

74 LAND A LIBERTY" birthplace of his maternal grandfather John Vallance. What kind of "word" was being preached in Glasgow, he demanded of a crowd in the City HENRY GEORGE'S #1 Halls, which allowed such extremes of wealth and want to rub shoulders? How could expensive church building and lavish spending on overseas missions be MESSAGE TO reconciled with the fact that 41 out of every 100 citizens of Glasgow were forced to live in single roomed tenement slums "that would appal a THE SCOTS ' heathen"? Low wages, want, vice, degradation were not George asserted "the fruits of Christianity" but came rather from "the ignoring and denial of the vital principle of Christianity." While in Ireland they did some "kicking against January and April 1884 was loosely organised by the this infernal system", George taunted, the devout London based Land Reform Union. It entailed Scots acted as though the lairds had created the visiting over sixty towns including most major cities, heavens and the earth. As a result the Highlanders and the delivery of seventy-five lengthy speeches. Of were being steadily pushed off the land to swell an all parts of Britain, Scotland, which George reached already overcrowded labour market. The single tax in early February, proved the most receptive to his remedy, however, would get at the landlord "dogs in message. It was here after all with the Crofters' the manger" and provide free education, parks and Revolt raging and the cities crowded with Highland pensions for all. "Moderation" George declared in a and Irish exiles that the unacceptable face of land- rousing finale, "is not what is needed; it is righteous lordism was most apparent and keenly resented. The indignation. Grasp your thistle. Take this wild beast Presbyterian Scots moreover responded to the by the throat. Proclaim the grand truth that every religious strain in just as they had to the human being born in Scotland has an inalienable and evangelising of Moody and Sankey the decade equal right to the soil of Scotland!" before. This severe tongue-lashing had the desired effect. "Preaching" first for the Rev. David Macrae in Led by Richard McGhee, an Irish-born Glasgow Dundee, George travelled north to Wick and thence MP, William Forsythe, a lawyer, and the veteran to Skye where he "bearded landlordism in its den." land reformer, John Murdoch, the Scottish Land George's LRU contact at this stage was Dr. Gavin Restoration League, a purely Georgite body was Brown Clark a founding member of the Highland established with branches in Edinburgh and Land Law Reform Association (the leading pro- Aberdeen. crofter organization) and later Crofter MP for George welcomed the League's manifesto as a Caithness. Clark believed that George's presence in "lark's note in the dawn." The Scottish reputation the Highlands would advance the cause of land for logic and intelligence, he declared to a Greenock reform in that region. Local HLLRA leaders dis- audience, would help the world wide spread of the agreed, arguing that moderates would be put off by movement. He intended the SLRL as a cross party the "drastic dose" proposed by George, and in vain pressure group, "a nucleus where information could urged the latter to "mind his own business." be gathered", and a mechanism for articulating Landlord opposition reared its head in Skye where working men's grievances. George, refused the use of school and church halls, In the event the organization took a more direct was forced to conduct his meetings on the open political role and although it failed to make a hillside. The crofters welcomed him warmly, flat- significant impact at municipal and general elections tered perhaps by American interest in their plight. At it attracted a new generation of radicals such as Keir Glendale they removed the horses from George's Hardie and Shaw Maxwell, and provided an insti- "machine" and dragged him forward to the sound of tutional stepping stone to the establishment of the their famous horns. At Kilmuir a cairn was erected in SLP in 1888. his honour. Criticism of George had by this time reached fever pitch. The Glasgow Herald piqued that an American With John Macpherson the Glendale Martyr as should berate the Empire's second city warned that interpreter, George recommended passive resistance "underlying the pulpy piety, persuasiveness, and "on the Irish model" to counter factor tyranny, and benevolence of Mr. George the hard shell of the counselled against acceptance of all "half-way revolutionist appears." He was accused in the measures." No matter how tenaciously the crofters Greenock Herald of lining his own pockets in the asserted their belief in the communal nature of land cause of reform. ownership, George reasoned privately, they were too few in number to exert much political pressure. The Potential allies were put off by George's unwilling- revolt, however, deserved encouragement as a ness to "buy out" the landlords and the growing reminder to lowland city dwellers of "the iniquities of band of socialists were puzzled by his reluctance to extend nationalisation from land to capital. Indeed landlordism". Continued on p»0» 76 • George was at his most prophetic in Glasgow, the 75 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER From Page 75 was growing. In the smaller lowland towns by-passed Marx dismissed him as a "panacea monger" and his in the Spring he was also well received. "The land programme as "the capitalist's last ditch." question", he wrote to an English friend, "will never Most harmful to his historical reputation in Britain go to sleep in Auchtermuchty." Above all the hearty was the handling George received by academic welcome for Michael Davitt amongst the Anglo- economists. Alfred Marshall of Cambridge declared Scots at George's London meeting augured well for a there was "nothing new" in his theories. James future Celtic land reform alliance. Mavor, professor of political economy at St. Without the hoped for general election to give Mungo's College was shocked on meeting the political focus to his campaign, George intensified American in 1882 to find him ignorant of both Scots the religious element in his message. His famous and French Physiocrats. George, to his credit, made Sunday sermon on "Moses" helped reinforce his no claim to originality. It delighted him that his weekday speeches without offending Sabbatarian theory was "no mere yankee invention." Wherever sentiment. Moses provided an inspiring example possible he referred to earlier land tax writings to George believed of an individual's ability to trans- bolster his case freely recommending Patrick Dove's form society. The Mosaic Codes, moreover, while Theory of Human Progression to an Aberdeen clearly divinely inspired, were concerned not merely audience and cooperating with Hyndman on the with access to the afterworld, but with the daily life republication of Spence's The Real Rights of Man. and condition of the Israelites. Razor-sharp with hecklers, George ruled never to The Jubilee for instance by allowing for periodic counter critics in writing, maintaining throughout his land redistribution prevented monopoly. This con- life that Progress and Poverty answered all their trasted markedly George observed with the Scottish points. The continuing success of the book with the Calvinist outlook which regarded suffering as the less literate vindicated this policy. To refine his unchangeable dispensation of Providence and had theory in response to criticism would weaken its resulted in clerical inaction during the Clearances. propaganda force divorcing economics once again This scriptural approach while easily grasped by from the man in the street. Scottish audiences proved something of a double At the bequest of his Scottish followers George edged sword. A heckler in Greenock cited Abraham's broke this ruling once to reply to an attack by the purchase of land for forty sheckels as justifying Duke of Argyll in the Nineteenth Century Magazine. private property in land. The Tory Northern Argyll who had resigned from Gladstone's govern- Chronicle deemed it irreverent for George to "teach ment in protest over the 1881 Irish Land Act, was the the most high a lesson in political economy" and leading Whig landowner in Scotland and too grand a criticised his making capital out of the "religious target to ignore. By subtly confronting him with "the instincts" of the Highland people. sins of his ancestors" and contrasting Argyll's anti- Parodying his close identification with Moses, the slavery record with his attitude to the crofters, Scotsman urged George to lead the "indigent crofters George, in the eyes of his supporters at least, got the ... to the promised land at Winnipeg." Despite such better of the exchange. mocking, George's Social Gospel was well received George returned to New York in April 1884 well amongst the more socially conscious of Scottish pleased at having "started the fire in Scotland." He clergy including the crofter's champion the Rev. counselled the SLRL leadership by letter vetoing Donald MacCallum of Waternish and it motivated their plans for a publicity tour of America but the Rev. Duncan Macgregor of Chicago to establish encouraging them in a mysterious "Skyeexpedition". his Scottish Land League of America. Perhaps because it entailed "some risk of arrest" the George's British success was due in no small scheme was abandoned leaving George bemoaning measure to his speech-making ability. He was, accor- the absence of strong leadership in Scotland. This ding to , "deliberately and vacuum was filled in October 1884 when George, intentionally oratorical" holding his audiences with cabled by the SLRL that a general election was "a killing gaze in the manner of Athenian orators of imminent, crossed the Atlantic once more. old." At the same time his sentences were short and Apart from an opening meeting in London, incisive. Consideration of political economy was George devoted the whole of his second tour to limited to a few simple principles illustrated with Scotland. It was an organizational disaster. Edward local examples. McHugh. the Irish-born secretary of the SLRL, Edinburgh citizens were made aware of the neglected pre-tour fund raising and advanced pub- £25,000 annual ground rent drawn by the Heriot's licity. This led to poor audiences and press neglect. Trust and of the financial burdens imposed on them But George persevered with a gruelling tour by the grant of parkland to former Lord Provost schedule to score some notable successes. By frater- Warrender. Similarly George urged a Greenock nizing on Skye with some marines of the "occu- audience to contemplate the municipal problems pation" force who had read Progress and Poverty which could be solved with the £100,000 rent paid to George helped highlight the futility of the govern- Sir Michael Robert Shaw Stewart. Even opponents men's coercive policy. His reputation amongst the paid tribute to George's sincerity on the platform. crofters as "Henry Seoras" who "caused the great Added to this was the apocalyptic strain per- men to tremble throughout Europe and America" meating George's writings and public utterances. In

76 LAND A LIBERTY" STARTLING LOSSES MANY YEARS ago. while work- readily at hand the well oiled ma- ing in a West End estate agency. I By Robert Miller chinery which can tell the Chan- discussed with my employer the cellor in double quick time how insurance of his house in Hamp- much he could raise by imposing Property'. stead I suggested that there was e tax on. e.g. cats or candy floaa. Chapters include the historical no need to cover it for the full In his chapter on the 1986 background. Henry George's an- purchase price of £50.000 (equal Green Paper Paying tor Local alysis of the problem, the prin- to about a quarter of a million Government, which recommends ciples of site value taxation, its today), because at least half of the introduction of the Poll Tax, practice in other countries, and that must be the site value. Why he ahoota that idea down in the numerous attempts to get waste money insuring something flames in his own staling way, something dona about it here. which could never be destroyed 7 and ends by saying it la "well Being a chartered accountant, He said I had a point. I then said, worth reeding H only aa the the author haa obviously found having just read Progress and strongest possible argument in leas difficulty then some in pro- Poverty, that if Henry George's support of site value rating". ducing what he calla a "hypo- system of land value taxation Imagine that aa a press comment thetical exercise ... for the ex- were in operation he would not on the jacket of a book I perts to get their teeth into the have had to fork out anything like An interesting point occur* to meet of the proposition". £60,000 in the first place. me in his letter to the Pope which The figures, though startling, He said: 'Yes, that is an old he quotes aa an appendix. In the are valid enough to illuatrata be- one I' — and then instructed me passage concerning "natural re- yond reasonable doubt the astro- to aend off the premium. Well, it the term appears the nomical amount of income the certainly is an old Idea, dating State continually loses to the pri- back at least a thousand years, sources". Is this a misprint a vate absolute owner of land. and as Oliver Smedley reminds us fortuitous reminder that. In the If the Inland Revenue should in his latest little book Lend\ it is context the two words are syony • want to confirm or disprove Mr. high time those who ought to mous? Smedley's figures, they have know, but choose not to, were Except for a little piece on again prodded into realising the immigration. I found the book truth contained in his sub-title 'ftoo Trodo Anti-Common Motto Potty. entertaining, instructive and con- Gordon Cottogo. Duck Si. Wondons Ambo. 'Privately Appropriated Public Soffron WoUon. fim vincing.

Progress and Poverty he had warned of a time when action by the state. Although the single tax was "the sword will again he mightier than the pen and in essentially a piecemeal programme it attracted a wide carnivals of destruction brute force and wild frenzy spectrum of radicals and encouraged the nascent will alternate with the lethargy of a declining civi- British socialist movement. By shattering working- lization." Immediate land reform was imperative class illusions about American democracy George George argued if such a catastrophe was to be also helped initiate a fruitful and often overlooked avoided. This sense of urgency and expectation was period of cooperation between American and given substance in the Scotland of 1884 by the Third Scottish labour. Reform Act. By enfranchising the crofters amongst At the same time. George represented the culmi- others the Act threatened a political revolution in the nation of the mid-nineteenth century humanitarian Highlands with a real possibility of radical land reform tradition. He drew his inspiration and his reform to follow. insistence on immediate reform from the principles George's reputation peaked in Britain by the end of radical abolitionism. Indeed his campaign was an of 1884 and two years later in America with his Labor attempt to extend the moral logic of Garrisonian candidacy in the New York mayoralty election. His anti-slavery to the problem of private property in condemnation of the Chicago Anarchists in 1887 lost land. His skill in arousing British working-class him considerable socialist support on both sides of consciousness was due partly to his membership of the Atlantic. His influence on the radical wing of the the fourth estate and partly to his own struggle for Liberal Party, however, proved more enduring. In self-education. He was as noted "a 1889 he returned briefly to Britain as an informal man rising from among the workers." His modesty, adviser and field general of the Liberal land reform sincerity and almost mystical religious conviction strategv. The taxation of land values remained high impressed all who met him. on the Liberal legislative agenda and fueled the Lloyd Late in life he was interviewed by a reporter from George People's Budget controversy of 1909. the New York Sun. Charles Dana, the paper's editor George was an important transitional figure in the refused to print the result. Instead he summoned the history of transatlantic social reform. His assault on reporter to his sanctum telling him, "you sound like the stagnating science of political economy helped to Wendell Phillips reporting Saint John the Baptist. I break down deap-seated antagonism to economic told you to see a Mr. Henry George."

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 77 Arthur R. Hogue, The Origins of the By EDGAR BUCK Common Law, Indianapolis: Liberty Press, $10.

This is a well-researched book by an American professor on the origins of the Common Law of England. It makes an important contribution to the understanding of the civilizing influence of the Common Law, and does much to establish in the reader's mind the flavour of the times in which it Magna Carta originally developed. The author begins with an assumption that "the Common Law has grown, now rapidly now reluctantly, to keep pace with the changes in the social order from which it is inseparable". Although by some the Common Law is defined as and all that a body of law based upon custom alone, it "had its roots in the soil of native feudalism, notably the land law and the law of succession". were represented by national The discussion on stability and defence and military expeditions change provokes a realization

78 LAND A LIBERTY" employed, that one hesitates to and magnates of the incidents of and equitable interests it was infer the main motive as an effort feudal tenures. declared: "(1) The only interests by landholders to avoid the By statute Edward provided or charges in or over land obligations then current, and for the substitution of the buyer which are capable of subsis- possibly in the future to be for the seller in any transfer of ting or of being created at law imposed through a completed lands and prohibited further sub- are: (a) an estate in fee simple Domesday Book. infeudation of land. Thus the absolute in possession: (b) a But taking all this with the Statute of Quia Emptores regu- term of years absolute." information in the book now lated the buying and selling of The words still have legal under review, and in particular land with the intention of preser- connotations, but, they are "free- the details of the financial embar- ving to the Barons - and the hold" and "leasehold" respec- rassment of the Kings in 1286 and Crown - the wealth obtainable tively. However this declaration 1289, it is submitted that the from wardships marriages and was substantially foreshadowed motive is not misrepresented. escheats". by the Conveyancing and Law of Indeed, this is supported by From these beginnings the Property Act 1881 and that was detail in pages 217 and 218 of the absolute private ownership of only declaratory of the situation book, where there appears the land progressed. Already the as to land tenure which had following passage: "During the 1215 version of Magna Carta grown up over the centuries. reign of Henry II" (1 154-1188) contained provisions to provide Land monopoly had serious "the Royal Courts had been for inheritance for continuity of social consequences of which concerned to protect seisin of the family. Gradually the owner- there is monumental evidence still freehold." ship of land became vested in standing. On the one hand there Feudalism was still very much fewer and fewer people. This arc the huge houses of the landed alive, tenants by service still process was accentuated by the aristocracy. One of them has 365 contributed heavily to the defense Enclosure Acts later on (there rooms. On the other hand there of the realm; the fief was still an were 4091 such Acts between arc the workhouses for paupers, economic base for the support of 1700 and 1844). some of which still exist. a man-at-arms and his family. The consequence was that by I read as a child a chant as a But by the reign of Edward 1st 1932 the land of our country was pauper funeral passed. It ran: much had altered; the outward owned by 2% of its people. This "Rattle his bones over the formalities of tenures failed to was the situation which was stones. conceal the fact that men invested recognised as a social evil from He's only a pauper who in land as a means of accumu- biblical times and the law given to nobody owns!" lating wealth. Moses on Mount Sinai provided Many of the paupers were able- Although feudal forms of for a re-distribution every gener- bodied men who had to crack tenure persisted, tenures were ation of 50 years (Jubilee). "Ye stones for a night's lodging. The bought and sold freely in an shall not therefore oppress one welfare state and the industrial active market. If this traffic in another" (Leviticus Chapter 25 revolution have intervened but land were not regulated, it would V17). the social evil of land monopoly quickly spawn long chains of By Section 1 of the Law of continues to deny to people their tenure and deprive great barons Property Act 1925 on legal estates just economic inheritance.

4 From Back Pag* farmers arc not absolutely alone. thing to lose and nothing to gain How is it that these big farmers, They have important allies: the from the CAP, yet the losers are a tiny minority of the agricultural fertiliser and agricultural poison diffuse and ill-organised, while interest itself are able to override ("pesticide") corporations who those who stand to profit by it not only the consumers but also the more necessitous farmers too? share both the blame and the constitute a powerful lobby which profit. has the ear of politicians fearful of When I was a Parliamentary So we return to the substance losing support. Thus the agricul- candidate in a largely rural Eng- lish constituency, I found the only of the letter from the four organ- tural lobby is able to override people who had time to staff the isations. Thanks to the CAP, the everybody else. local NFU were the big farmers, consumer is robbed, the taxpayer There is another point invol- so the "farmers' lobby" is not the is plundered, the countryside is ved. The main beneficiaries are lobby of all the farmers, but the devastated of its wild life, the not the poor, struggling Euro- lobby of the rich farmers, who Third World is pushed ever deeper pean peasants; a striking recent succeed in deluding townspeople, into poverty, and industrial article in The Independent' points including politicians, that they unemployment is made even out that CAP "heavily favours speak for the whole agricultural worse. big and capital-intensive farms community. How much longer are we all against smaller, more labour- going to put up with this? intensive, ones". To be fair, however, the big 79 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER Farm cartel burdens

WHEN FOUR non-political or- ganisations as important and as disparate as the World Wildlife Fund, the Council for the Protec- CAP the lot tion of Rural England, the Catho- lic Institute for International Relations, and the Consumers in the European Community Group, make a joint statement on a the artificial stimulus of the CAP, 1 matter of public interest, it is By ROY DOUGLAS which is paying him, with tax- certainly worth taking seriously payers' money, for doing the very what they have to say. These four things which conservationists organisations have recently pro- agricultural products. The CAP agree ought not to be done. duced a penetrating criticism of operates against this in two ways. These criticisms which the four the workings of the Common First, the customs barriers im- organisations level against the Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the posed by the EEC (which are CAP do not complete the list of European Economic Community essential for the operation of the grievances. A remarkable Austra- (EEC) in the form of a letter to the CAP arrangements) make it more lian study2 raises other important President of the European Com- difficult for outsiders to sell in points. It argues that the overall mission. European markets. effect of the CAP has been to The CAP is not only by far the Second, the surplus EEC pro- deflect no less than £8.9 thousand most expensive item of the EEC duction, for which the European millions from manufacturing and budget; it represents almost twice taxpayer has been compelled to service industries. This ultimately the total of all other EEC spen- pay, does not return to the Euro- adds nearly half a million to the ding put together. The effect of pean consumer at low prices, appallingnumbersofunemployed the CAP is to compel the taxpayer which is what one might expect in Britain alone. to subsidise certain kinds of agri- from a glut. The "lakes" and cultural production through farm "mountains" of surplus food are A RATHER striking feature of support prices, while at the same eventually unloaded on world the letter written by the four time import duties are set on markets at heavily subsidised organisations is that they set the many kinds of food from outside prices, with which the Third blame squarely on the shoulders the EEC, which naturally makes World cannot compete. of the European Council of that food dearer in the shops. Considerations like these ex- Ministers and the so-called Euro- As the four organisations point plain the concern of organisations pean "Parliament" rather than out, the burden which this im- established to combat poverty, the EEC Commission. poses is necessarily most heavy on whether in Europe or in the Why should that be the case? the poorest people, who spend up developing countries. But how The letter does not state, but we to 30% of their income on food. have two famous environmental may make a reasonable conjec- This sort of observation, no organisations become involved in ture. The Commission is essen- doubt, explains the concern felt the protest? tially a bureaucratic body, which by a body like Consumers in the The CAPpositively encourages is intentionally kept as free as European Community Group the farmer to bring the scarce possible from political pressures. about current practices of the patches of wild land under crops, The Council of Ministers and the CAP. But how does an organis- or under intensive grazing. He is European "Parliament", by con- ation like the Catholic Institute given subsidies to spread weed- trast, are bodies composed of for International Relations be- killer and fertiliser, to grub up politicians. come involved in the protest? The hedges and woodland, to drain Within most of the EEC coun- CIIR is particularly concerned the vanishing wetlands. tries, Governments are poised on with social and economic It is not the stimulus of the narrow majorities, and are very development in the Third World, natural market of consumers, but susceptible to the activities of and the Third World is affected in economic pressure groups like a very adverse way by the CAP. 1 Letter to Jaques Delors. and Press release, of 15 our own National Farmers' April 1987. The capacity of the Third ' "Effects of EEC Agricultural Policies" Bureau of Union. World to raise its living standards Agricultural Economics and Centre for Inter- Although the great majority of national Economics Canberra. 1987 depends to no small degree on the 1 Michael Prest: "EEC policy cost UK 'nearly Vim people in the EEC have every- willingness of others to buy its lobs'." Thf ImltfxnJrni. 11 May 1987 ContiniMd on Page 79 •

Published by Land and L.b«rty International Lid 177 Vaunhall Bridge R.«d. London SWIV IEU Typeset in (.real Brum h> Alacrity Phototypscttcrs. Banwell C»stk. Weston-super-Mare, and printed by Kinfsdak Prcw Reading Berk,