The Socialism of to-day

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 835096955

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-28834

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Laveleye, Émile de

Title:: The Socialism of to-day

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Field & Tuer

Year of publication:: 1884

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XLIV, 331 S.)

Collection:: Economics Books

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294 SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. an account of the rival scheme of land nationalization proposed by Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the celebrated naturalist. In 1882 Mr. Wallace published his book, “ Land Nation alization ; its necessity and its aims,” with the object of showing that “a properly guarded system of Occupying Ownership under the State ” would afford a complete remedy for the evils of landlordism, and of explaining how the change may be prac tically effected “ with no real injury to existing landowners,” and “ without producing any one of the evil results generally thought to be inseparable from a system of land nationalization.” In the earlier chapters of his book Mr. Wallace discusses the causes of poverty in the midst of wealth, and illustrates the evils resulting from Irish, English, and Scotch landlordism mainly by quotations or compilations from well-known writers. He then contrasts the system of Occupying Ownership with that of Landlordism, and endeavours to show that “just in pro portion as the cultivator of land has a permanent interest in it, is he well off, happy, and contented.” Mr. Wallace’s piethod is an induction from facts, but he claims the support of Mr. George’s deductive reasoning, which, he says, is “ founded on the admitted principles of Political Economy, and the general facts of social and industrial development.” Finally, in his last chapter, after maintaining that Free Trade in land, as advocated by many English Liberals, would merely have the effect of increasing the large estates and intensifying the evils of Landlordism, Mr. Wallace propounds his own solution of the question, which may be summarized as follows :—The State must be the sole owner of the land. 1 he tenants under the State must have a permanent tenure, and must be subject to no restrictions as to cultivating, selling, or transferring their holdings \ but sub-letting must be absolutely prohibited, and mortgages strictly limited. The ownership of the State is not to be merely nominal, as in England to-day, but is to involve the receipt of a perpetual quit-rent in respect of the inherent value of the land. The amount of this quit-rent will be determined in the following way :—An elaborate valuation of every separate plot of land in the United Kingdom will have to be made, and the annual or rental value so fixed must be divided into two parts.

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