132 Large and Small Holdings 



The pioneers of the whole movement were two men who at that 

 time were prominent Radicals, namely Mr Joseph Chamberlain and 

 Mr Jesse Collings. In a very interesting publication of the year 1885, 

 which bore the imprimatur of Mr Chamberlain and was entitled The 

 Radical Programme, it was expressly stated that "It will be found 

 that in a rich country like England, with the desire for land which is 

 generally found among the wealthy classes, there will be but small 

 chance for either farmers or labourers who are not capitalists to raise 

 themselves out of the ranks of tenants and wage-receivers. Some 

 special legislation will be needed to prevent monopoly and accumula- 

 tion of land by a few persons, and to bring about, or rather to restore, 

 the interest and connection between the cultivator and the soil which 

 exist in other countries, and which in former times obtained in Eng- 

 land. Occupying ownership and peasant proprietary established under 

 certain conditions and by the aid of the State, acting through local 

 authorities, seem to be the direction in which these objects can best 

 be secured 1 ." Peasant proprietorship was thus the aim of the first 

 promoters of the movement : and accordingly the Act of 1892 

 favoured the creation of small properties rather than of small 

 tenancies. Such tenancies, it will be remembered, might not be 

 of greater extent than 15 acres (whereas small properties might be 

 anything up to 50 acres), and then might only be let if the County 

 Council was of opinion that the prospective tenant was not in a 

 position to purchase such a holding. 



But in spite of the intentions of the pioneers and the provisions of 

 the Act, the expectations of a revival of small ownership were dis- 

 appointed to a very remarkable degree. Of the 569 acres of land 

 acquired by the County Councils between 1892 and 1902, only 162 had 

 been sold to their occupiers, whereas 373 were let. The explanation is 

 not obscure. The interposition of the local authority did indeed facili- 

 tate the acquisition of land by the small agriculturist in many ways; 

 but it did not do away with the fundamental difficulty, viz. that he had 

 to pay, in the exchange value of the land, more than its capitalised 

 annual value. Also, though he only had to pay down \ of the total 

 price, that sum was no inconsiderable one, especially as, if the Council 

 provided the necessary buildings, etc., \ of their cost was included. 

 Or if the preparation of the holding was not undertaken by the 

 Council, then the purchaser had to be prepared with a still larger 

 amount of capital. He must also be provided with the necessary 

 working capital ; so that merely to take over such a property would 



1 The Radical Programme, 1885, pp. 145 f. 



