known when these nations were first discovered. This is, indeed, very natural. Their chief spring of production flows as if of itself, apparantly inexhaustible; and the hunter can hardly think of such a thing as saving any of his booty. And, among nomadic nations, the land is a great meadow held in common; and the industry of plunder is considered, as it is in all inferior stages of civilization, especially honorable. The conquistadores of Peru found there something very like a community of goods, under the despotic guardianship of the state, viz.: a yearly division of all lands among the people, in proportion to their rank; the cultivation of these lands in common, under the superintendence of the state, and to the sound of music. But, at the stage of civilization that Peru was then in, land is about the only resource possessed. The results were the usual ones. A country like Peru, with * Community of goods and of women among the Ichthyophages on the Red Sea, who lived in caves, went naked for the most part, plundered all shipwrecked people, and never reached an advanced age. Diodor., III, 15 ff. Peripl., Maris Erythr., 12. Concerning the Scythians, see Strabo, VII, 300; the Spaniards, Plutarch, Marius, 6; the Rhetians, Dio Cass. LIV, 22; the Triballi, Isocr., Panath., § 237; the Kilici, Sext., Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot. III, 24. Community of goods among the Caribs who performed all their work in common, and had, at least in the case of males, a common table and common stores with supplies. (Petr. Martyr, Dec. VII, 1. Rochefort, II, c. 16. B. Edwards, History of the West Indies, I, 43 ff.) Among the Kuskowimers of Russian America, all the able-bodied men of the tribe live together. (v. Wrangell, Nachrichten, 129.) Among the inhabitants of the Aleutian islands, at least in times of scarcity of food, the produce of the fisheries is divided according to their need. (V. Wrangell, 185.) The organization of labor is rigidly enforced among the Otomacs, on the banks of the Orinoco, and they are, nevertheless, more civilized than their neighbors. (Depons, Voyage, I, 295.) A community of goods must, however, be considered an advance, in the case of an isolated people; and it is an error to look upon it as the most primitive condition, as does, for instance, Ambrosius, De off. Minist. I, 28, and Frederick II, in the preface to his general code. (Allgemein. Gesetzbuche, 1231.) The hospitality of the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands borders on a community of goods. (Mariner, Freundschaftsinseln, 75, 81. Klemm, Kulturgeschichte, IV, 398.) Concerning the beginnings of property among the Esquimaux, See Klemm, II, 294. * Οὐκ ἄδοξον ἦν παρὰ τοῖς παλαιοῖς ληστεύειν, ἀλλ' ἔνδξον. (Didym., ad Odyss. II, 73, IX, 252.) only one city, no beasts of burthen, no plows, no trades and no commerce, cannot possibly be rich. That the constitution of Lycurgus established a sort of community of goods among the Spartans, is well known. I need only recall the public education, the meals in common, the authorization of stealing, the prohibition of trade, of the precious metals and fine furniture, the equal division of property and the inalienable character of the land etc. With such laws, Sparta could neither be, nor desire to become, wealthy. Of all Greek states of any historical importance, it preserved longest the economic peculiarities belonging to a low stage of civilization. Among most modern nations, the fundamental idea of their land laws, which had their origin in the middle ages, is, that each family is only the usufructuary, and that the community is the sovereign proprietor of the soil. This community of landed possession finds expression, among other things, in the vast extent of communal woods and pasturages, in the varied intersecting of parcels of land one by the other, which, indeed, change proprietors from time to time, and in the com 4 In Mexico, the Spaniards found land ownership among the most distinguished of the natives, but only a species of possession in common and common store houses among the peasantry. (Robertson, History of America, § VII.) Hence, the agriculture of the country was so unimportant that the little army of the conquistadores frequently produced a famine by their marches. The Tcherkesses considered robbery honorable provided the robber was not caught in flagrante. Compare Koch, Reise in den kaukasischen Isthmus, I, 370 ff. Bell, Journal of a Residence in Circassia, I, 181, II, 201. The organized robber bands of ancient Egypt, when it was so highly civilized (Diodor., I, 80) may, on the other hand, be accounted for by similar conditions actually existing in the large cities of our own day. "What a frightful organization of labor we find in Sparta, combined with a community of goods! Let us recall the exposing of children authorized by law, the mode of education which must have cost the life of all whose constitution was weak, the cryptia, the stern hierarchy of age etc. Plut., Inst. Lac. 2, appreciates the bad taste of the black broth at its true value. The Cretan community of goods was based chiefly on the unnatural relation created by the authorities known as paiderastia; and which was a very efficient means to prevent over-population. (Plat., De Legg, I,636. Arist., Polit. II, 8.) 8 mon working of the land, carried as far as possible etc. In all medieval times, not only the individual is considered an owner of the land, but, over and above him, the family. At the same time, we are wont to find existing an amount of mortmain property in the hands of corporations, monastery lands, crown lands and domains of very great importance." All these institutions have declined in number and shown a disposition to disappear, in proportion as national husbandry or economy has grown more productive. SECTION LXXXIV. THE ORGANIZATION OF LABOR. [CONTINUED.] To this tendency we find, indeed, another, and a no less powerful one, opposed. Everywhere as civilization advances, the sphere of action of the state grows larger, and the ends it serves more numerous. In its origin, government was established to preserve only the external security of its subjects. By degrees, it comes to look after their internal legal security, by enforcing internal peace, prohibiting revenge for bloodshed etc. It next extends its care to the well-being, the culture, and even to the comfort of the people. But the claims of the state must grow in the same proportion as the service it renders. While Lowe, in 1822, estimated the yearly net income of the British people at Remarkable reasons therefor in Cæsar, Bell. Gall., VI, 22. 8 There are, especially in Russia, a multitude of such institutions among the inhabitants of the country still. See Roscher, Nationalökonomik des Ackerbaues, § 71 ff. In the Corpus Juris Canonici, that crown of medieval theology, politics and jurisprudence, the ideal of a community of goods occupies a place almost as prominent as in the works of modern socialists. The only difference is, that in the former the opposition to private property arises from a one-sided religiousness and contempt of the world, while, in the latter, it arises generally from irreligiousness and over-estimation of worldly goods. £251,000,000; the government expenses,' in 1813 and 1814, averaged £106,000,000, and these sums were voluntarily devoted to public purposes by parliament. And so, between 1685 and 1841, the population of England more than trebled its numbers, But, in the same period of time, the outlay of the state increased forty fold. (Macaulay.) Simultaneously with this development of things, it becomes more and more usual by the exercise of the power of eminent domain and others like it, to sacrifice private rights, acquired by the very best of titles, to the preponderating common good. We may allude, further, to the duty, universally imposed in modern times, of performing military service, to the national systems of public instruction in so many countries; to the large number of societies, joint-stock companies, popular holidays; but particularly to the associations for insurance of every description. And so it may, indeed, be claimed that we have come nearer to a community of goods than could have been dreamed of a hundred years ago. And yet, these are, for the most part, institutions in which we find reflected the peculiar strength and solidity of our age. Whoever wishes to compare the power of one people with that of another, must take into account not only the elements which constitute their intellectual and physical force, but especially their inclination to permit these elements to coöperate for public purposes. 3 1 This does not include the cost of the schools, churches and benevolent institutions. According to Lassalle, System der erworbenen Rechte, 1861, § 259, history shows that law, as civilization advances, curtails more and more the proprietary sphere of private individuals, inasmuch as it tends more and more to place a greater number of objects outside the circle of individual ownership. 3 Saint Simonism is a warning example of this tendency. Saint Simon never lost an opportunity to give vent to his utter contempt for the liberals, and for constitutional government— ce bâtard du régime féodal et du régime industriel; and to counsel the crown, after the example of Louis XI. to place itself at the head of the working class, and in opposition to the middle class. (Oeuvres de Saint Simon, éd. 1841, 44, 148, 209.) Bazard, Exposition, 76, demanded that all antagonism between the temporal and spiritual powers, all VOL. I.-17 We may now inquire: At what point does this increasing community cease to be a gain? This is as easily determined. generally, as it is difficult to say what the limit to it is in particular instances. Progress in the direction of a community of interests of this nature is beneficial, only so long but certainly as long as it corresponds with the feeling entertained by the community, that they have interests in common. Hence it is, that such a noble kind of communism reigns in art and literature, one which causes the stronger to willingly labor for the weaker, and with the greatest success. And so, too, the christian care of the poor, even were it carried to the height of the Gospel counsels (Luke, 3:11), would be no direct obstacle in the way of the development of a nation's public economy, provided it were given, and accepted, only as christian benevolence. Every approximation towards a community of goods should be effected by the love of the rich for the poor, not by the hatred of the poor for the rich. If all men were true Christians, a community of goods might exist without danger. But then, also, the institution of private property would have no dark side to it. Every employer would give his workmen the highest wages possible, and demand in return only the smallest possible sacrifice.56 opposition for the sake of freedom, méfiance organisée of parliaments, and all competition, should cease. Even education he would have bestowed according to capacité, which he would have determined by the chefs légitimes de la société (280). To the criminal court should be referred all cases of delicts, that is, all inopportune acts, even in the scientific and artistic departments. They should be tried after the manner of the "courts of trade;" that is, in a summary way, without appeal, and by experts (317 ff). All the relations of property should be determined by the décision arbitrale des chefs d'industrie (326). Bazard everywhere insists that the reign of genius and of self-sacrifice on the one hand, and on the other of confidence and obedience, is the only true policy (330). Saint Simonism was nearly related to Bonapartism. 4 Schäffle, Nat. Œk., III, Aufl., I, 61. 5 If we remove in thought, all injurious elements from a community of goods, and add to it all the incentives and restraints necessary to be added, we shall have a state of things entirely similar to that in a nation whose public and private affairs are carried on in accordance with the principles of a |