On the effect of the limitation of Parliamentary Title to Ireland, in promoting purchases of land by English and Scotch capitalists

Abstract

When the sales of land first took place under the Incumbered Estates Act, it was expected that there would be a very large number of English purchasers. So strong was this impression, that one of the Commissioners was selected from the conveyancing bar in England, with a view no doubt to give confidence to this class of purchasers. This expectation was founded on two economic fallacies ; first, that Ireland was suffering from a want of capital; and secondly, that it required a very large amount of capital to buy incumbered estates. The first of these fallacies I endeavoured to expose in a paper read before the the British Association at Ipswich in 1851, and published in the Transactions of this society. The second fallacy admits of an easy refutation. If we only reflect that the incumbrances on land in Ireland are generally held by Irishmen, under such circumstances the more incumbered the estates are, the less capital is required in the aggregate to purchase them. The produce of each sale being applied in paying off incumbrances, sets free nearly as much capital as is absorbed in the purchase.