470 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



requirements of agriculture ; and her gigantic commerce has pro- 

 vided employment for the small freeholders whose lands have 

 been swallowed up. But on the Continent the case is vastly 

 different ; and the reason of this is to be found in the facts 

 noticed with reference to Belgium. 



Here large farms are, as a rule, not so well cultivated as small 

 ones, and this is easily accounted for. To work a farm of 

 200 hectares with as much capital as Flemish small farmers do, 

 100,000 francs (;^4,ooo) would be required. Now, a man who 

 commands such a sum will not become a farmer ; he will either 

 go and live in a town, become a functionary, or employ his 

 capital in business ; hence the working capital of large farms is, 

 as a rule, insufficient, and therefore the returns from these are 

 smaller, and they let at less rent. Thus an additional stimulus is 

 given to subdivision. 



This being the case in Belgium, it must a fortiori be so in 

 countries in which husbandry is more behindhand. In eastern 

 Europe e.g., in Hungar)', Poland, and Prussia large estates 

 are farmed by the proprietors themselves, in the absence of 

 tenants of sufficient capital. 



Even in England, would not the land be more carefully culti- 

 vated were there a number of peasant proprietors ? ^ and, suppos- 

 ing there were 200,000 small farmers more than there are now, 

 might there not be 500,000 fewer paupers less to be supported .-' 

 I only put the question, not feeling myself competent to decide it. 



Free trade in land. I borrow this title from an interesting 

 work published by Mr. W. Fowler, M.P. In our western world 

 it seems to me necessary that there should be no obstacle to land 

 changing hands, in order that it may be distributed in conformity 

 with the laws of political economy, and become the property of 

 those who can turn it to the best account. 



To this end, the first requisite is that all those restrictions 

 should be done away with by which landed property is rendered 

 immovable in the possession of certain families ; for example, 

 primogeniture, entails, etc. In the second place, every one ought 



1 See the excellent article on the " Channel Islands," by M. Zincke, in the 

 Fortnightly Review, January i, 1876. 



