EFFECT OF BOUNTIES UPON RENT 113 



would be possible to leave to such landlords as desired 

 to retain their leadership the power to control and 

 develop their land. The State, however, would then 

 be able to strike a bargain and receive payment for such 

 additions to the value of any given area of land as were 

 brought about by the imposition of duties or the award 

 of bounties. With this security the State would be able 

 to embark upon any policy designed to bring about the 

 more intensive use of the soil without saddling itself 

 with the expense of rewarding the owners of such land 

 as required no artificial stimulus to bring it into the 

 system of cultivation desired. The State could sum 

 up the cost of its policy, knowing that it would be pay- 

 ing only for what it effected, and could form a judgment 

 as to whether the benefits accruing, indirect and pros- 

 pective, were likely to be equivalent to the direct ex- 

 penditure to be incurred. 



It is not worth while discussing in detail so 

 remote and controversial a proposition ; it may 

 well be that the need of considering it will not 

 arise, because agricultural prices after the war may 

 remain at such a level as will pay for the extension of 

 arable farming that is desired. But it is necessary to 

 insist upon the fact that the extent of arable farming is 

 dependent upon the prices for produce ; that if the State 

 for its own safety must obtain a maximum of arable 

 land, it may find it necessary to extend some measure 

 of assistance to the farmers, in which case it could 

 secure itself from unnecessary loss by at the same time 

 taking over the land with any increments in value due 

 to its own action. 



This much is certain : that in the critical period of 

 the reconstruction of our national economy, the State 



