Absentee landlord
From Freepedia
Absentee landlord is an economic term for a person who owns and rents out a profit-earning property, but does not live within the property's local economic region. This is a common corporate practice.
Critics of this practice argue that absentee landlords drain local wealth, particularly that of rural areas and the Third World.
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Absentee Landlords in Ireland
Absentee Landlords were a highly significant issue in the History of Ireland. During the course of 16th and 17th centuries, most of the land in Ireland was confiscated from Irish catholic landowners during the Plantations of Ireland and granted to British settlers. Seized land was given to English nobles and soldiers, some of whom rented it out to Irishmen while themselves remaining residents of England. Over the centuries, resentment grew as not only were the absentee landlords Protestant (while most tenants were Catholic), but their existence meant that the wealth of the land was always exported. In the years following the Irish Potato Famine, the land issue with the Irish Land League's Land War becoming a most significant issue in Ireland. The land issue was one of the historic factors which resulted in Ireland's troubled history until this day.
Absentee landlords in Prince Edward Island
An Absentee landlord crisis was a key factor in Prince Edward Island's decision to become a part of Canada. In the mid-1760s, a survey team divided the Island into 67 lots. On July 1, 1767, these properties were allocated to supporters of King George III by means of a lottery. Ownership of the land remained in the hands of landlords in England, angering Island settlers who were unable to gain title to land on which they worked and lived. Significant rent charges (to absentee land lords) created further anger. The land had been given to the absentee landlords with a number of conditions attached regarding upkeep and settlement terms; many of these conditions were not satisfied. Islanders spent decades trying to convince the Crown to confiscate the lots, however the descendants of the original owners were generally well connected to the British government and refused to give up the land.
In 1853, the Island government passed the Land Purchase Act which empowered them to purchase lands from those owners who were willing to sell, and then resell the land to settlers for low prices. This scheme collapsed when the Island ran short of money to continue with the purchases.
In 1864, the Island government saw union with Canada as a possible solution to the landlord crisis. This followed a rent strike and riots on the Island. At the Charlottetown Conference, delegates proposed a fund to purchase landlords' holdings if the Island joined Confederation. Several weeks later at the Quebec Conference this offer was withdrawn. The Island resolved not to enter Confederation as a result. The government refused offers from the other provinces and finally relented in 1873 after the local economy was push near to collapse. Under the terms of union, Canada agreed to provide the Island with an $800 000 fund to purchase the remaining absentee holdings.
Source: Library and Archives Canada[1].
Absentee landlords in the Mandate of Palestine (Israel)
In the early 20th century, land in Palestine was largely owned by absentee landlords who lived in Cairo, Damascus and Beirut. At that time, Palestine was a part of the third world. About 80 percent of the Palestinian Arabs were debt-ridden peasants, semi-nomads and Bedouins. The Jewish Zionist movement sought to change this. In 1937, a British Royal Commission of inquiry called the Peel Commission issued a report that concluded that the migration of Jews to Palestine (along with the work of the British Administration) had resulted in higher wages, an improved standard of living and ample employment opportunities.
The Zionists sought land that was largely uncultivated, swampy, cheap and, most important, without tenants. The Zionists were largely socialists with a high degree of concern for their fellow man. Of the land purchased 73 percent of Jewish plots were purchased from large land owners and rather than "fair prices" the unfertile land was purchased at tenfold the price that fertile land in Iowa was going for. As a result of local Zionists becoming responsible for the land and working it with care, the land became fertile, and the communities (both Jewish and Arab) prospered.
The purchase of land from absentee landlords and the establishment of the Kibbutz (which in many cases managed the land on a daily basis) is one of the key factors that rose Israel from the Third World to the First World. It also lead to the development of sound environment policy, with much of the land used to plant forests - making Israel the only country to have more trees at the start of the 21st Century than at the start of the 20th Century.
Main source: Zionism and land purchases from absentee landlords
