Page:Lectures on Housing.djvu/23

 because land is a commodity which is not perishable. If he were selling fruit and the demand were slack, he would be bound immediately to reduce his price, as otherwise his goods would perish on his hands. Or if he were selling diamonds, to take another extreme case, and had fixed his price too high, he might completely kill his market. No one is under any compulsion to buy diamonds, and too high a price may discourage buyers altogether. But in the case of land, the owner knows that with the growing population the demand is bound to grow, since whatever they dispense with, people must have land. Therefore he maintains his price, saying, from his point of view, "If you don't pay it to-day, you will do so in the long run." But the builder reflects: "I cannot squeeze the price of material: I cannot squeeze the price of labour, and I cannot borrow money at a lower rate of interest, so as I cannot get cheaper land, I shall not build."

There is no doubt that all these factors