The Prussian agrarian reforms of the present century: their method and extent

Abstract

Much misunderstanding exists, even among those who have made land reform a special study, respecting the principles and methods of the Prussian agrarian legislation of the present century. The prevailing belief is that it involved a compulsory expropriation of landowners holding, as do Irish landowners at the present time — an expropriation, moreover, which was immediate and universal in its operation. Such a belief is inaccurate and misleading. Prussian legislation contained the principles of compulsory transfer of property; but it was of a different property from that with which we are concerned in Ireland, and half a century passed by before that legislation had attained to its full development. There are, however, many elements in the land legislation of Stein and Hardenburg and their successors, there are numerous lessons to be derived from its working, which should not be neglected or overlooked by the statesman or legislator who would deal effectively with the problem presented to us in Ireland.