It has been quaintly observed in mitigation of these facts, and with a view to reconciling the British people to the humiliation and economic servitude involved in these facts, that some part of the 2,500 persons' 40,000,000 acres consists of mountain and waste land. As a matter of fact, this plea is a further condemnation of the position, for very little indeed of our small British area ought to be "waste." British landowners are responsible to the nation for their wanton neglect of afforestation. Let the "waste" land of the rich be handed over to the nation if it is declared to be valueless to its few owners.
Since 1883 the number of owners has doubtless increased, but not largely, for even those people who own little strips of land bearing houses chiefly do so on leasehold tenure, being in effect employed in the engaging process of nursing ground rents for a future generation of the few who own. It may be that in the United Kingdom at the present moment there are about 1,250,000 freeholders, but the substantial ownership of British land remains as it is faithfully pictured in the above figures.
As need hardly be added, these facts about land ownership are a most striking confirmation of the conclusions arrived at in these pages as to the monopoly of capital.
As we are land animals, we are compelled, such of us as cannot command the capital necessary to buy a base to live upon or work upon, to come to terms with the individuals who are in possession of the British area. The payment which is made for permission to use land is commonly called rent, and the total amount of the rent paid for the use of the 77,000,000 acres is a considerable sum. We can form a very fair estimate of it from the Income Tax returns already examined.
First, as to the landlords' revenue from agricultural land. This we obtain from Schedule A of the Income Tax. The income assessed in 1908-9 was £52,000,000 gross, but as we have already noted, part of this was not real income. Between the cost of repairs (for which the Commissioners allowed £6,360,000), adjustments on appeal, etc., the net income from agricultural lands taxed in 1907-8 was about £44,000,000. But this is the rent, not of the land alone, but of the farms as going concerns, with all their buildings, fences, roads, ditches, etc. The actual rent of the land alone may perhaps be put at £35,000,000.
Secondly, we come to the rents of all lands bearing houses, factories, business premises, etc. The gross income assessed under Schedule A of the Income Tax in 1908-9 was £217,000,000, of which £49,000,000 was for the Metropolis alone. From this figure considerable deductions have to be made to arrive at net income. The Commissioners allowed for repairs £33,700,000, for Charities, etc. £7,400,000, for empty property £8,000,000, for over-assessments, etc. £3,900,000. Thus the real income from houses and the land upon which they stand, accruing to private landlords is reduced to £164,000,000. Of this £164,000,000 how much is rent from land alone?
In London about one-third of the gross assessment is land rent. In the Provinces the proportion is smaller; probably less than one-fourth. As to the former figure, the L.C.C. surveyor, after careful examination of the subject in detail, a few years ago estimated the land values of the Metropolis at £15,000,000, which was just over one-third the gross assessment of land and buildings together. I take, then, the Metropolitan land rents at £16,000,000 and those of the rest of the United Kingdom at one-fourth of the gross assessment (£164,000,000), or £41,000,000. Thus we arrive at £57,000,000 for the whole of the United Kingdom. To this we have to add £1,000,000 of miscellaneous sporting rents, tithes, etc.
But Schedule A does not exhaust the profits derived from the ownership of land. Under Schedule D are assessed Railways, Mines, Quarries, Ironworks, etc., which are undertakings attached to land, and in the profits of which land rents form a part. The most important case is that of mines. In 1893 the Royal Commission on Mining Royalties carefully calculated all mining royalties, dead rents, etc., received by freeholders in 1889 at less than £5,000,000.[24] This sum has now probably increased to about £7,000,000, including mines and quarries of all descriptions. The rental value of the land employed in Railways, Canals, etc., can hardly be taken as more than £6,000,000 per annum.
Collecting the figures we have estimated, we get:
ESTIMATE OF LAND RENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM