Land Tenure Reform Association

The Land Tenure Reform Association (LTRA) was a British pressure group for land reform, founded by John Stuart Mill in 1868. The Association opposed primogeniture, and sought legal changes on entails. Its programme fell short of the nationalisation of land demanded by the contemporary Land and Labour League.

The context of the formation of the Association was the aftermath of the Reform Act 1867. While the franchise had been extended, the Reform League that had pushed for the extension then collapsed as a political force. In parallel, Mill and Edmond Beales set up the Association to promote further reform and change. Besides modifications to land law, they proposed also to encourage co-operative agriculture and smallholders.

Following a launch of a programme by Mill in July 1870, and organisational work in which Thomas Hare and Jacob Bright were involved, the Association held its first public meeting in 1871. A key plank of the Association's programme was taxation of the unearned increment. Mill's advocacy of this measure presaged more radical proposals of the 1880s. His views influenced Arthur Arnold, president of the Free Land League in 1885.

In July 1870 The Economist argued that the LTRA's emphasis on freeing up trade in land in fact would work against the expansion of peasant proprietors, since the wealthy would pay high prices for land. Agricultural labour's interests were represented at meetings of the LTRA by Joseph Arch.

On Mill's death on 1873, the Association's effective role came to an end. Mill had handed over to Alfred Russel Wallace. It was in the early 1880s that Wallace's writings led to the formation of the Land Nationalisation Society. The Association itself closed down in 1876. Land reform was a more important issue at the 1885 general election than at any previous time, or subsequently.

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