y
piece of land will, as a rule, be able to command its use. And, with
this as the governing principle, an apportionment is secured between
shops, offices, factories, agriculture, between the immense variety of
different employments covered by each of these broad headings; not a
rigid unvarying apportionment, but one which constantly changes as
economic circumstances change, and as the margin of transference
between different occupations moves hither and thither. This
apportionment takes place at present as the result of the independent
decisions and bargains of many private individuals, who are thinking
mainly of their own interests, and not of those of the community. But
this state of affairs might be altered. The land might be nationalized
and allocated to its various uses by the co-ordinated labors of a
great State department, or some other agency of the collective
will. However improbable such a change, it is perfectly conceivable.
But what is not conceivable is that any State department should handle
the job with a success even approaching that of the present system,
unless it continued to use, as its main instrument, the criterion of
either rent or price. That a piece of land would yield a higher rent
in one occupation than in any other is not conclusive evidence that it
is best to devote it to the former purpose, but it is very good
evidence, and it should be allowed to prevail unless it is
demonstrably outweighed, as it possibly might often be, by
considerations of a different kind. That it would not be well for the
community to employ land in the city of London for corn-growing
purposes, however desirable might be a revival of home agriculture, is
so obvious that it may seem to have no bearing on the present issue.
But it is only an extreme indication of the absurd and wasteful use of
our natural resources, which would grow up slowly but surely, if we
dispensed with ideas of rent and price as sordid irrelevancies, and
allocated our land on the basis of a balancing of the loftiest
arguments of a vague and sentimental character. If you are prepared
for the distribution of land to become stereotyped, for each piece to
continue indefinitely in its present use, then indeed you might
dispense with rent, as primitive societies very largely do. That would
mean stagnation and, for an industrial country, decay. But if changes
are ever to be contemplated, a simple quantitative measure is the only
safeguard against utter