Editing Landed property

{{Short description|Income-generating land owned by gentry}}
In [[real estate]], a '''landed property''' or '''landed estate''' is a [[property]] that generates [[income]] for the owner (typically a member of the [[gentry]]) without the owner having to do the actual work of the estate.

In medieval Western Europe, there were two competing systems of landed property; [[manorialism]], inherited from the [[Roman villa]] system, where a large estate is owned by the [[Lord of the manor]] and [[Tenant farmer|leased to tenants]]; and the [[family farm]] or ''[[:wikt:Hof#German|Hof]]'' owned by and heritable within a [[commoner]] family (cf. [[yeoman]]), inherited from [[Germanic law]].

A [[gentleman farmer]] is the largely historic term for a country gentleman who has a farm as part of his estate and farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit.<ref>{{cite web|title=Definition – "Gentleman Farmer"|url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gentleman-farmer|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130916224241/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gentleman-farmer|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 16, 2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016 |access-date=25 June 2016|quote=A country gentleman who has a farm as part of his estate.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Definition – Gentleman farmer|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gentleman%20farmer|publisher=Merriam-Webster, An Encyclopædia Britannica Company|access-date=25 June 2016|quote=A man who farms mainly for pleasure rather than for profit}}</ref> His acreage may vary from under ten to hundreds of acres. The gentleman farmer  employed labourers and farm managers. However, according to the 1839 ''Encyclopedia of Agriculture'', he "did not associate with these minor working brethren". The chief source of income for the gentleman farmer was derived not from any income that his landed property may generate; he had either access to his own [[private income]], worked as a professional and/or he owned a large business elsewhere, or all three.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Claudius Loudon|first1=John|title=An encyclopædia of agriculture ... Fourth edition, etc – Book I Agricultural Artists (Page 1123)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqtgAAAAcAAJ&dq=gentlemen+farmers+acreage++professions&pg=PA1123|publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, &Longmans|year= 1839|access-date=25 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1= Kames|first1=Lord Henry Home|title=The Gentleman Farmer: Being an Attempt to Improve Agriculture by Subjecting it to the Test of Rational Principles|url=https://archive.org/details/gentlemanfarmer00kamegoog|page= [https://archive.org/details/gentlemanfarmer00kamegoog/page/n95 67]|quote= gentlemen farmers lord acreage sheep.|publisher=W. Creech|year= 1776|access-date=25 June 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Quinn|first1=Tom|title=Life on the Old Farm (Chapter – A Farming Dynasty)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Tv8WOn_zCcC&dq=gentleman+farmers+private+income&pg=PT136|publisher=David & Charles|date= 1 April 2012|isbn=9781446354773|access-date=25 June 2016|quote=My father was a gentleman farmer in the sense that he had a private income... he didn't need to worry too much if the farm itself didn't make any money.}}</ref>

Modern landed property often consists of housing or industrial land, generating income in the form of rents or fees for services provided by the facilities on the land, such as port facilities. Owners often commission an [[estate map]] to help manage their estate as well as serving as a status symbol.<ref>A Sarah Bendall, ''Maps, Land and Society: A History, with a Carto-bibliography, of Cambridgeshire Estate Maps, 1600–1836 '' (Cambridge University Press, 1992)</ref>

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 [[religion|religious]] practices.

In later times, the dominant role of landed estates as a basis of public service faded. Development of [[manufacturing]] and [[commerce]] created [[capitalism|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 [[Government agency|bureaus]] and the military, so that people of talent could perform government services for salaries without need for the proceeds of ownership of farmland.

Much of the [[United States]], typically [[New England]], [[Pennsylvania]], and most states west of the original colonies, never had a landed [[aristocracy]], so their armed forces and government agencies could never be organized on the basis of a [[landed nobility|landed aristocracy]].{{citation needed|date=June 2014}}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Absentee landlord]]
* [[Absentee business owner]]
* [[Feudalism]]
* [[Gentleman farmer]]
* [[Gentry]]
* [[Georgism]]
* [[Landed gentry]]
* [[Land tenure]]
* [[Manorialism]]
* [[Old money]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
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{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Land tenure]]
[[Category:Gentry]]