You’re not wrong, Ted, that certainly played a part in freeing up land for construction purposes, and the need of land for construction is a big factor in building. I was half going to mention the part taxing landowners played in freeing up land for construction during this period in the UK. For example, the forced sale of land undoubtedly played a big part in properties ending up being purchasable for just two times the average wage by 1914.

What made me not do so was the fact that arguably one of the main reasons for the tax, and the many that followed it, was because the agricultural crisis in 1870 created a situation where you had lots of aristocracy who were land rich, but extremely cash poor. It’s likely this created a big incentive for the government to get this land off them so that it could be developed.

So, it’s hard to work out whether if they had not ended up cash-poor, whether they would have themselves developed the land for sale.

But it’s a great point, Ted, land available to purchase for development with the intention of selling on is so important for property ownership, and taxing the cash poor aristocracy certainly played a big part in ensuring there was land available for development that could be sold on to would be homeowners.