National Land Company

an organization founded in 1845 by F. O’Connor, which operated in Great Britain. It opposed the aristocracy’s monopoly in land. However, the society based its activities on the Utopian idea of saving the workers from exploitation by returning them to the land. With this aim, land allotments were purchased with funds collected by members of the society and then leased to worker-stockholders. In opposition to the petit-bourgeois program of the National Land Company, which in fact distracted the workers from the class struggle, the representatives of the revolutionary wing of Chartism demanded nationalization of the landlords’ land. The futility of O’Connor’s agrarian plan was demonstrated by the fact that, although the National Land Company had over 40,000 members, only 200 persons received allotments. The society collapsed in 1848.