CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 227 300 yd badul in his poffeffion, without their due ufe; if the fruits rotted, or the venifon putrified, before he could spend it, he offended against the common law of nature, and was liable to be punished; he invaded his neighbour's share, for he had no right, farther than bis ufe called for any of them, and they might ferve to afford him conveniencies of life.

§. 38. The fame meafures governed the poffeffion of land too: whatfoever he tilled and reaped, laid up and made ufe of, before it fpoiled, that was his peculiar right; whatfoever he enclosed, and could feed, and make ufe of, the cattle and product was also his. But if either the grafs of his inclosure rotted on the ground, or the fruit of his planting perifhed without gathering, and laying up, this part of the earth, notwithstanding his inclofure, was ftill to be looked on as wafte, and might be the poffeffion of any other. Thus, at the beginning, Cain might take as much ground as he could till, and make it his own land, and yet leave enough to Abel's fheep to feed on; a few acres would ferve for both their poffeffions. But as families increased, and induftry inlarged their ftocks, their poffeffions inlarged with the need of them; but yet it was commonly without any fixed property in the ground they made ufe of, till they incorporated, fettled themfelves together, and and built cities; and then, by confent, they came in time, to fet out Q 2

the

the bounds of their diftinct territories, and agree on limits between them and their neighbours and by laws within themfelves, fettled the properties of thofe of the fame fociety: for we fee, that in that part of the world which was firft inhabited, and therefore like to be best peopled, even as lo low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with their flocks, and their herds, which was their fubftance, freely up and down; and this Abraham did, in a country where he was a ftranger. Whence it is plain, that at least a great part of the land lay in common; that the inhabitants valued it not, nor claimed property in any more than they made use of. But when there was not room enough in the fame place, for their herds to feed together, they by confent, as Abraham and Lot did, Gen. xiii. 5. separated and inlarged their pafture, where it beft liked them. And for the fame reafon Efau went from his father, and his brother, and planted in mount Seir, Gen. xxxvi. 6.

§. 39. And thus, without fuppofing any private dominion, and property in Adam, over all the world, exclufive of all other men, which can no way be proved, nor any one's property be made out from it; but fuppofing the world given, as it was, to the children of men in common, we fee how labour could make men distinct titles to feveral parcels of it, for

their

their private ufes; wherein there could be no doubt of right, no room for quarrel.

§. 40. Nor is it fo ftrange, as perhaps before confideration it may appear, that the property of labour fhould be able to overbalance the community of land for it is labour indeed that puts the difference of value on every thing; and let any one confider what the difference is between an acre of land planted with tobacco or fugar, fown with wheat or barley, and an acre of the fame land lying in common, without any hufbandry upon it, and he will find, that the improvement of labour makes the far greater part of the value. I think it will be but a very modeft computation to fay, that of the products of the earth useful to the life of man nine tenths are the effects of labour: nay, if we will rightly eftimate things as they come to our ufe, and caft up the feveral expences about them, what in them is purely owing to nature, and what to labour, we fhall find, in most of them ninety-nine hundredths are wholly to be put on the account of labour.

§. 41. There cannot be a clearer demonftration of any thing, than feveral nations of the Americans are of this, who are rich in land, and poor in all the comforts of life; whom nature haying furnished as liberally as any other people, with the materials of plenty, i. e. a fruitful foil, apt to produce in abundance, what might

Q3

ferve

23 d

OF CIVIL-GOVERNMENT.

serve for food, raiment, and delight; yet for want of improving it by labour, have not one hundredth part enof the conveniences, and a king of a large and fruitful terpt afforol wars clad wo ritory there, feeds, lodges, and is worfe 4 ad of 916 than a day-labourer in England.

joy: ca

clearer,

I

S. 42. To make this a little $.42. let us but trace fome of the ordinary provifions of life, through their feveral progreffes, before they come to our use, and see how much they receive of their value from human industry. Bread, wine and cloth, are things of daily ufe, and great plenty; yet notwithstanding, acorns, water and leaves, or skins, muft be our bread, drink and cloathing, did not labour furnish us with thefe more ufeful commodities: for whatever bread is more worth than acorns, wine than water, and cloth of filk, than leaves, fkins or mofs, that is wholly owing to labour and induftry; the one of thefe being the food and raiment which unaffifted nature furnishes us with; the other, provifions which our industry and pains prepare for us, which how much they exceed the other in value, when any one hath com pated, he will then fee how much labour makes the far greatest part of the value of things we enjoy in this world: and the ground which produces the materials, fcarce to be reckoned in, as any, or at moft, but a very fmall part of it; fo little, that even amongst us, land that is left

is

lly to

nature,

nature, that hath no improvement of pasturage, tillage, or planting, is called, as indeed it is, waffe, and we fhall find the benefit of anyo ffborbond it amount to little more than nothing.

This fhews how much numbers of ment are to be preferred to largeness of dominions; and that the increaf of lands, and the right employing of them, is the great art of government and that prince, who fhall be fo wife mentida and godlike, as by established laws of liberty to fecure protection and encouragement to the honeft induftry of mankind, against the oppreffion of power and narrowness of party, will quickly be too hard for his neighbours: but this by the by. To return to the argu ment in hand,

Y

43. An acre of land, that bears here twenty bushels of wheat, and another in America, which, with the fame hufbandry," would do the like, are, without doubt, of the fame natural intrinfic value: but yet the benefit mankind receives from the one in a year, is worth 5. and from the other poffibly not worth a penny, if all the profit an Indian received from it were to be valued, and fold here; at leaft, I may truly fay, not one thoufandth. It is labour then which puts the greatest part of value upon land, without which it would fcarcely be worth any thing: it is to that we owe the greateft part of all its useful products; for all that the ftraw, bran, bread, of that acre of wheat, is more