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20
of population being thus in itself a hindrance to normal
expansion. An illustration will make this argument clear.
The population of London has rapidly increased. The
augmented demand for shelter is perceptible in the rise of
land values, not only throughout greater London, but in
districts where the echoes from the distant town never
penetrate.
The belt of environing estates, the large proportion of which
is still under tillage or horticulture, and yet unapproached by
the builder, is estimated at a capital figure upon which no
appreciable interest can be realized from any agricultural
undertaking. For the transfer of the ownership of suburban
land offers of even many thousand pounds per acre have been
considered inadequate. But in the precincts of the busy
centres, plots insignificant in dimensions have attained a
fabulous quotation in the market. These prices, prohibitive
except under the urgent necessities of extreme pressure, and
increasing, pari passu, with demand, have seriously hindered
expansion within these land nursing districts. Freehold plots
rarely come into the market. Large areas remain in the hands
of owners incapacitated by the terms of ownership from selling.
Large areas fall within the grasp of speculators unwilling
from motives of aggrandizement to realize. Whether inherited
or acquired, the land seldom changes ownership. The
values in the estate thus circumstanced augment, without
the employment of either spade or trowel. No uncommon
attribute either of mind or body is essential upon the part of
the owner to the growth. Retentiveness is the quality which
alone commands success. Neither is there any alloy mixed with
this unearned gold. To the annual addition to capital value
even the tax-gatherer is oblivious, and the rate collector does
not venture the imposition of his toll.
The peculiar position of influence and immunity, and the
standpoint of prospective profit held by the freeholder is not