William Frederick Bailey, The Irish Land Acts — Agriculture Situation consequent on the Fair Bent Acts (1917)
“ As is natural in a country in the greater part of which there is no other employment or industry than that of agriculture, the competition for farms is so keen that very large sums—often far in excess of the value of the land, if measured by any standard of productive capacity—are paid for the mere right to occupy. ”
William Frederick Bailey, The Irish Land Acts — Agriculture Situation consequent on the Fair Bent Acts (1917)
“ The same lack of alternative occupation for the inhabitants allows land in certain poorer parts of the country to yield a profit to the owner which it could not afford if managed on the English system of equipped farms. ”
William Frederick Bailey, The Irish Land Acts — Agriculture Situation consequent on the Fair Bent Acts (1917)
“ Under this system, what Adam Smith termed "the higgling of the market" is the easiest test of land value, as it is of all other commodities with regard to which competition is free. In Ireland, on the other hand, the landlord, speaking generally, owned only the soil. The agricultural equipment of each farm was the property of the tenant, who was practically an hereditary occupier. He or his predecessor in title had undertaken the drainage and reclamation, bad made the fences and farm roads, had built the houses. ”
