worth than the product of an acre of as good bland, which lies twafte, is all the effect of labour for it is not barely the plough-man's pains, the reaper's and thresher's toil, and the baker's fweat, is to be counted into the bread we eat; the labour of those who broke the oxen, who digged and wrought the iron and ftones, who felled and framed the timber -employed about the plough, mill, oven, or any other utenfils, which are a vast number, berequifite to this corn, from its being feed to be fown to its being made bread, muft all be charged on the account of labour, and received as an effect of that: nature and the earth furnished only the almost worthless materials, as in themselves. It would be a borange catalogue of things, that induftry proIvided and made ufe of, about every loaf of bread, 1 before it came to our ufe, if we could trace them; iron, wood, leather, bark, timber, stone, bricks, coals, lime, cloth, dying drugs, bo pitch, tar, mafts, ropes, and all the materials made ufe of in the ship, that brought any of the commodities made ufe of by any of the workmen, to any part of the work; all which it would be almoft impoffible, at least too dong, to reckon up.

48.44. From all which it is evident, that though the things of nature are given in common, yet man, by being mafter of himfelf, and proprietor of his own perfon, and the actions or labour of it, had ftill in himself the

great

great foundation of property and that, which made up the great part of what he applied to the fupport or comfort of his being, when binvention and arts had improved the convesniencies of life, was perfectly his own, and did not belong in common to others.

$45. Thus labour, in the beginning, gave a right of property, wherever any one was pleafed to employ it upon what was common, which remained a long while the far 1greater part, and is yet more than mankind makes ufe of. Men, at firft, for the most part, contented themselves with what unfaffifted nature offered to their neceffities: and though afterwards, in fome parts of the world, (where the increase of people and ftock, with the ufe of money, had made land fcarce, and fo of fome value) the feveral communities fettled the bounds of their diftinct territories, and by laws within themselves regulated the properties of the private men of their fociety, and fo, by compact and agreement, fettled the property which labour 3 and induftry began; and the leagues that have been made between feveral ftates and kingdoms, either exprefly or tacitly difowning all claim and right to the land in the others poffeffion, have, by common confent, given up their pretences to their natural common right, which originally they had to thofe countries, and fo have, by pofitive agreement, fettled a property amongst themselves, in diftinct parts and parcels of the earth; yet there are still great

༥

great tracts of ground to be found, which (the inhabitants thereof not having joined with the reft of mankind, in the confent of the use of their common money) lie wafte, and are more than the people who dwell on it do, or can make ufe of, and fo ftille lie in common; tho' this can scarce happen amongst that part of mankind that have confented to the ufe of money.

§. 46. The greatest part of things really: ufeful to the life of man, and fuch as the { neceffity of fubfifting made the first commoners of the world look after, as it doth! the Americans now, are generally things of fhort duration; fuch as, if they are not confumed by ufe, will decay and perish of themfelves: gold, filver and diamonds, are things that fancy or agreement hath put the value on, more than real ufe, and the neceffary fupport of life. Now of thofe good things: which nature hath provided in common, every one had a right (as hath been faid) to as much as he could ufe, and property in all that he could effect with his labour; all that his industry could extend to, to alter from the ftate nature had put it in, was his. He that gathered a hundred bushels of acorns or ap¬ ples, had thereby a property in them, they were his goods as foon as gathered. He was only to look, that he used them before they fpoiled, elfe he took more than his fhare, and robbed others. And indeed it was a foolish thing, as well as difhoneft, to hoard up more

f

than

than he could make ufe of. If he gave away a part to any body elfe, fo that it perished: not uselefly in his poffeffion, thefe he alfow. made ufe of. And if he alfo bartered away: plums, that would have rotted in a week, for nuts that would laft good for his eating a whole year, he did no injury; he wafted! not the common ftock; deftroyed no part of the portion of goods that belonged to others, fo long as nothing perifhed ufelefly in his hands. Again, if he would give his nuts s for a piece of metal, pleafed with its cosa lour; or exchange his fheep for fhells, or wool for a sparkling pebble or a diamond, and keep thofe by him all his life, he invaded not the right of others, he might heap up as much of these durable things as he pleafed; the exceeding of the bounds of his juft property not lying in the largenefs of his poffeffion, but the perishing of any thing uselesly in it.

§. 47. And thus came in the ufe of money, fome lafting thing that men might keep with out spoiling, and that by mutual confent men: would take in exchange for the truly useful, but perishable fupports of life.

§. 48. And as different degrees of induftry were apt to give men poffeffions in different proportions, fo this invention of money gave them the opportunity to continue and enlarge them for fuppofing an ifland, feparate from all poffible commerce with the rest of the world, wherein there were but an hundred families, but there were sheep, horfes

and

and cows, with other ufeful animals, wholfome fruits, and land enough for corn for a hundred thousand times as many, but nothing in the ifland, either because of its commonnefs, or perishablenefs, fit to fupply the place of money; what reafon could any one have there to enlarge his poffeffions beyond the use of his family, and a plentiful fupply to its confumption, either in what their own induftry produced, or they could barter for like perishable, ufeful commodities, with others? Where there is not fome thing, both lafting and fearce, and fo valuable to be hoarded up, there men will be apt to enlarge their poffeffions of land, were it never fo rich, never fo free for them to take: for I afk, what would a man value ten thousand, or an hundred thoufand acres of excellent land, ready cultivated, and well stocked too with cattle, in the middle of the inland parts of America, where he had no hopes of commerce with other parts of the world, to draw money to him by the fale of the product? It would not be worth the inclofing, and we fhould fee him give up again to the wild common of nature, whatever was more than would fupply the conveniencies of life to be had there for him and his family.

well

§. 49. Thus in the beginning all the world was America, and more fo than that is now; for no fuch thing as money was any where known. Find out fomething that hath the

ufe