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The Land Is Ours

a landrights campaign for Britain

However this liberal tradition focuses on the natural entitlement to the land as a way of justifying, and an excuse for, the excesses and injustices of the land system as it was (and still is). Locke's theory has very little to offer in the way of equality, nor does it offer any hope to those 'disenfranchised' non-property owners. This rather depressing description of land rights is illustrated when Locke writes 'thus the turfs my servant has cut become my property without the assignation or consent of anybody. The labour that was mine, hath fixed my property in them.' Most of us however might well contend that the labour was never Mr. Locke's but his servants. What of the servants land rights? To Locke's description there must be a prescription. This can be found in a separate tradition, a tradition which places the land rights of all at the heart of a plan to maximise the fairest and most effective use of that most natural of all resources.

One of the earliest exponents of this tradition (and one of the most overlooked) is Thomas Spence (1750 - 1814). Spence saw the natural right to the land as a central defining criteria of citizenship, and it is his land plan that I will concentrate on here. Spence saw the control of land as being the main infringement on individual liberty and the power of the landlord was so great that it dominated and controlled Government and society. So to remove this dominion he proposed that in regaining the land, man would regain his freedom. 'If the people wish to have the government in their hands they must begin first by taking the land into their own hands.'

Spence contrasts the present system of land rights and distribution with the State of Nature where no one has any title to property. He does not build up a history of how things came to be, or how things should have developed, but simply illustrates that originally no one had title to any of the land, so it is illogical to see present distributions as 'natural'. Whereas Locke didactically builds up a defence of private property, Spence maintains that if land was never originally bequeathed to anyone, how could this be reflected in the present land rights?

Spence's vision of 'Spensonia' focused on a plan which returned decisions, power and land to the local community with the parish being the nucleus of socio-political life. All land is held in common by the parish and leased those who wish to work on it. Each parishioner has as much right as anyone to rent the land 'for doing whatever the people think proper; and not as formerly to support and spread luxury, pride and all manner of vice.'

However Spence is not advocating a system by which to merely auction land, his plan goes much further and benefits the whole community. Not only would the land provide the focus for much of the commercial activity, but the rents raised at auction would be paid into a parish fund. It is this parish fund which would sustain the link between the land and the welfare of all parishioners. In 'The Constitution of Spensonia', Spence contends that the monies raised from the land rents will be divided by the parish officer each quarter day so that every adult resident receives an equal share. However it is only the profits which are divided out, for the rents firstly pay all the parishes 'civic debts'. As Spence explains in 'The Rights of Infants', the fund will pay 'all our builders and workmen that build or repair our houses; pave, cleanse, or light our streets; pay the salaries of our magistrates and other public officers.' These are not the only programmes the parish funds finance, for the parish will also provide sufficient accommodation for all, or failing that find a parish that would be in a position to do so. This may now appear to be uncomfortably close to Westminster City Council policy, but in the 18th century it was genuinely well intended. Not only will the parish provide housing but also a mini-welfare state exists and quarter day payments will cover all funerals and births. Spence believed that because the parish auction would raise fair and just rents, enough money would be raised so that two-thirds of the total collected rent would be surplus to parish costs and returned on quarter day (however he does fail to provide the costing for this!)

Spence provides us with an alternative vision of society, where society's functions and rights come before Governments. Spence does not see property in terms of crude ownership (a possession) but in terms of how the land can emancipate us all. Spence's vision allows us all to have a 'stake' in society and to share the benefits of the land throughout the community. With his land plan he manages to link the land not just with democracy and democratic freedom (as the Liberal Locke does) but with real economic freedom. This freedom is much more egalitarian than Locke's. Whereas the lack of property ownership is a bar to democratic freedom for Locke, the land creates freedom for every man, woman and child in Spensonia.

Perhaps by reviewing Spence's contribution to the History of Political Thought we can view land rights as a way of giving a greater share of natural resources to support effectively and efficiently all rather than the privileged few.

The land creates freedom for every man, woman and child in Spensonia

'If the people wish to have the government in their hands they must begin first by taking the land into their own hands.'