Sliding scales for rent - value and fair rents - annual and capital value

Abstract

The principle of varying judicial rents according to prices, introduced by the Land Law Act of 1887, is a startling innovation in our system of land tenure. To me it appears a retrogressive step?not on the ground that judicial rents are in anyway sacred?the subsistence of the people must always, in fact, be the first charge on the land, and in times of exceptional distress the payment of rent, in such countries as Ireland and India, must necessarily be wholly or partly suspended?but in the adoption of annual or less frequent variations on such a principle.