Out of Stock
Overview
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. HOW THE LAND PASSES TO LIMITED LANDOWNERS. Why is this area of land under settlement so immense and increasing ? I have said that the custom and law which encourage and permit entail and settlement, favour the acquisition of land by the wealthy. Let us test this assertion by putting the matter into quite another form. Suppose that upon the purchase of a loaf of bread, the baker's right to the flour and to the shop, together with the history of his possession for forty years, had to be investigated at the cost of the customer, and that, as of land, there was only a limited quantity of bread. The price of bread would fall, and would remain low, because there would be fewer purchasers. All those who had but little money would take to rice, or some other farinaceous food, which could be obtained without the expense of this legal investigation. Especially would all the industrial and the more careful classes be driven away from the bakers' shops by the uncertainty which must attend such an inquiry. No one would purchase a single loaf, for the uncertain charge for investigation and conveyance would be as heavy on that one loaf as upon a score of loaves. Bread would tend to become aluxury, which does not imply high price. Bread would be displayed with ostentation and pride in plenty upon the tables of the rich, and to possess bread in abundance would be an object of desire, not from fear of starvation, but because bread would be difficult of acquisition, owing to the expensive preliminaries. Somebody would propose that bakers' titles should be registered at a public office, so that anybody on payment, say of a penny, could see that all was correct, and would feel sure that the loaf might be eaten with safety. The reasonableness of such a proposal would be so evident, t...
| ISBN-13 | 9780217817868 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 0217817866 |
| Weight | 0.84 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 9.00 x 6.00 x 0.58 In |
| List Price | $20.40 |
| Format | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Pages | 254 pages |
| Publisher | |
| Published On | 2009-08-01 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
