absentee ownership

 

system under which a person (or a corporation) controls and derives income from land in a region where he does not reside. Abuses existed in absenteeism in pre-Revolutionary France, in 19th-century Ireland, in E and SE Europe before World War I, and in some oil-producing nations of the Middle East as late as the second half of the 20th cent. Revolution and reform have abolished or greatly reduced the amount of absentee control throughout the world. In the United States the term has been applied to the concentration of economic power through various corporate devices. Chain stores and branch banking are sometimes classified as types of absentee ownership.

Landed property or landed estates is a real estate term that usually refers to a property that generates income for the owner without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate. In Europe, agrarian landed property typically consisted of a manor, several tenant farms, and some privileged enterprises such as a mill. Modern landed property often consists of housing or industrial land, generating income in the form of rents or fees for services provided by facilities on the land, such as port facilities. The Duke of Westminster, one of the UK's richest people, derives much of his wealth from property in what is now central London.

Landed property was a key element of feudalism, and freed the owner for other tasks, such as government administration, military service, the practice of Law or religious practices.

In later times, the dominant role of landed estates as a basis of public service faded. Development of manufacturing and commerce created capitalist means of obtaining income, but ordinarily demanding the attention of the owner; at roughly the same time, governments began imposing taxes to fund government bureaus and the military so that people of talent could perform government services for salaries without need for the proceeds of ownership of farmland. Parts of the United States of America, typically New England and Pennsylvania, never had a landed aristocracy, so their armed forces and government agencies could never be organized on the basis of a landed aristocracy.

See also

• Feudalism
• Landed gentry

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