Britain for the British

by Robert Blatchford

We find that the labourer produces the whole of the crop, and that the landlord produces nothing; and we find that, when the crop is produced, some of it has to be given to the landlord.

Thus it is clear that where one man owns land, and another man owns no land, the landless man is dependent upon the landed man for permission to work and to live, while the landed man is able to live without working.

Let us go into this more fully.

Here (Fig. 2) are two squares of land—

Each piece of land is owned and worked by two men. The field a is divided into two equal parts, each part owned and worked by one man. The field b is owned and worked by two men jointly.

In the case of field a each man has what he produces, and all he produces. In the case of field b each man takes half of all that both produce.

These men in both cases are their own landlords. They own the land they use.

But now suppose that field b does not belong to two men, but to one man. The same piece of land will be there, but only one man will be working on it. The other does not work: he lives by charging rent.