it’s lunchtime at cochran’s boiler works in newbie and as lunchtime begins the boiler makers of newbie open the box with lloyd george’s foxy face on the cover, unfold the heavy paper board, deal out the chance cards, the pawns and the dice and settle down to play brer fox and brer rabbit, the game available from miss clarke of newbie, but what were the boiler makers doing? why brer fox and brer rabbit? why does the fox have the face of lloyd  george in the picture on the box?

land tax,, that’s why, land tax and before it was called brer fox and brer rabbit it was called the landlord’s game

the landlord’s game was invented not by miss clarke of newbie but by lizzie magie in the united states of america, lizzie was a comedienne, a poet, a writer of short stories, and so bohemian that when she started to run out of money she advertised herself for sale as a slave then she set up the economic game company in new york city and then it came to newbie and brer fox was lloyd george, chancellor of the exchequer and in 1913 prime minister of the united kingdom curiouser and curiouser, how do we get from new york to newbie, from the economic game company to cochran’s boiler works, from lizzie magie to lloyd george and who was miss clarke ?

suddenly a new name crops up henry george, so who is henry, did lloyd george know his father? were they related? well yes and no, lloyd george the politician was interested in henry george because he wrote a book with the splendidly radical title of progress and poverty

george, henry that is, thought that a person was entitled to the value of what he created by his or her own efforts, but the value of land or location, be it in new york or newbie, should be held in common, so george, henry that is, proposed that land ‘owners’ should pay tax on the land they ‘owned’ and brer fox, lloyd george that is, introduced a similar tax when he was chancellor of the exchequer, this tax levied 20% on the unearned increase in land value to be paid on the death of the ‘owner’ or the sale of the land

popular with some, but not at all popular with landowners, but popular with lizzie magie who agreed with george, henry that is, and so she created a game to promote his ideas and by adapting the game the boiler makers of cochran’s boiler company at the top of three trees road in newbie played the game instead of poker at lunch time imagining themselves on the solway fisheries or lord tomnoddy’s grouse moor or even, should the right chance come their way, sitting down to a £1000 dinner with the duke of westminster 

there was profit there was speculation there was risk there was bankruptcy there was jail if  you poached the solway fisheries salmon or lord tomnoddy’s grouse

but there at the end of three trees road in newbie the boiler makers imagined themselves living if not the life of riley at least the life of lord tomnoddy or maybe the duke of buccleuch

as the game was played the boiler makers of newbie

bought land …… with their starting capital which meant that when other players landed on their land they charged rents but other risks included being sent to goal or the lunatic asylum

improved their land …… a second tranche of capital in this part of the game is used to improve land increasing wages and generating rents, interest and taxes from other players

increased land values …… payable to the public treasury thereby making life difficult for landlords leading to solway fisheries selling out to the government and lord tomnoddy emigrating to canada

in the final stage of the game wages rise and unemployment and poverty disappear for ever

as lunchtime ends the paper is folded back in the box along with the cards and the dice and the pawns and the boiler  makers head back to cochran’s their dreams and risks over for another day