Oxford Collegiate Landownership, Commoditisation, and the State: A Case of ‘Real’ Regulation

In this paper I focus upon the increasing tendency of the Oxford colleges to treat their landed property as a commodity. I begin by arguing that the theory of action in context offers considerable potential for studying the nature of their landownership and the manner in which they have formulated and pursued their property interests. Following this, I examine the extent to which the colleges have shifted their capital out of landed property and into higher yielding sectors. This can be partly explained by the changing economic environment within which the colleges operated, especially the downturn in real returns from agriculture. However, their more business-like behaviour is also a product of the structural circumstances under which their ownership strategies have been formulated and pursued. This is examined by fusing the action-in-context approach with theoretical principles developed by the regulationist school. I show that opportunities to shift capital from low-yielding to high-yielding sectors arose as a result of the gradual loosening of restrictions which prevented the colleges from participating fully in capitalist economic relations. These changes were the outcome of a series of political—ideological struggles between the colleges and the central state over what kinds of institutions the colleges should become, their property rights and interests playing a key role in these disputes.