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HEROES FOR PRESENT PURPOSES?— A LOOK AT THE CHANGING IDEA OF COMMUNAL LAND OWNERSHIP IN BRITAIN: PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Author(s) -
Bateman D. I.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.1989.tb01110.x
Subject(s) - common ownership , pride , land tenure , landlord , relevance (law) , property rights , presidential address , leasehold estate , property (philosophy) , land law , law and economics , sociology , environmental ethics , economics , law , political science , agriculture , history , public administration , epistemology , archaeology , philosophy
The suggestion that land should be owned communally (usually nationally) has often been put forward in Britain during the last three hundred years. The paper reviews the arguments as they have been developed by Utopians, Economists, Popularisers and Politicians. It argues that, though current problems are different from those addressed in the past, the history of the idea of communal ownership still offers insights that have current relevance. As far as rural land is concerned, the problems associated with ownership rights are those that relate either to non‐market effects or to the ‘unearned increment’ or to landlord/tenant relationships. Suggestions are made as to the part that changes in property rights might play in handling these problems today. ‘To whomsoever the soil at any time belongs, to him belong the fruits of it. White parasols and elephants mad with pride are the flowers of a grant of land.’