Agrarian justice, opposed to agrarian law, and to agrarian monopoly, being a plan for meliorating the condition of man: By creating in every nation a national fund, to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, to enable him or her to begin the world, and also, ten pounds sterling per annum during life, to every per
Contributions
- Thomas Paine
- author
- William Adlard
- publisher
- John Parsons
- bookseller
Related resources
- has translation
- Thomas Payne à la législature et au directoire, ou la justice agraire opposée à la loi et aux privilèges agraires translation
- has translation
- La justice agraire opposée à la loi et monopole agraire, ou, Plan d'amélioration du sort des hommes. Fondé sur l'établissement d'un fonds national dans chaque pays, destiné à chaque individu, arrivant à la vingt-unième année, la somme de 15 liv. sterling translation
Notes
'Agrarian Justice' is a 40-page pamphlet that tackles the problems of land property and its political consequences, while offering a practical plan designed to counterbalance the inequalities caused by this system. In the context of the French Revolution, Paine shows how the exercise of land ownership tends to increase the gap between those who benefit from rent and those who are excluded from it. Paine’s egalitarian conception of politics, and his philosophical principles grounded on natural law, lead him to conclude that such inequalities must be addressed in order not to hinder political and social progress. To this end he proposes a universal income, made possible by a tax on inheritance, to compensate for economic inequalities inherent to societies based on private property.
Two versions appeared in English, one published in March 1797 in Paris (William Adlard) and London (Jason Adlard and John Parsons), the second also in Paris (William Adlard) and London (T. Williams). The first of these became the basis for all subsequent English versions, and was also published in Edinburgh (Alexander Leslie), Dublin, Cork, Philadelphia (Benjamin Franklin Bache), Baltimore and Albany. It omitted the address to the Directory and added a new preface, omitting the references to Bishop Watson, while replacing some of Paine's more provocative language with asterisks.
Demand in London was such that it went through at least eight editions during its first year, and was then reprinted again in pamphlet form as late as 1819. London radicals celebrated its publication by staging a public debate on 13 March 1797 at the Westminster Forum, on the question, "Would not the plan proposed by Mr Paine to the French Nation in his last new pamphlet called 'Agrarian Justice' effectually eradicate the evils of Poverty – present in great measure, the Commission of Crimes – and alleviate the Distress of Old Age and Infirmity?".
Paine's arguments were attacked by Thomas Spence for not going far enough and for failing to promote the transformation of private property into common ownership, in 'The Rights of Infants… in a Dialogue between the Aristocracy and a Mother of Children. To which are added, by Way of Preface and Appendix, Strictures on Paine’s Agrarian Justice' (1797, printed for T. Spence).
For a detailed account of the history of this text, see Brent Ranalli, "Thomas Paine's "neglected" pamphlet: Agrarian Justice", in Journal for the Study of Radicalism, vol.14, no.1 (spring 2020).