OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 309 



As long as there were plenty of wild animals, so that everybody 

 could kill as many as he needed, — so that he could get plenty of 

 meat to eat, and skins enough to clothe him, — there were no animals 

 except wild animals. Animals were not domesticated ; and property 

 in animals — live stock — was unknown. But as the wild animals 

 became scarce, some of the most tractable were caught and domes- 

 ticated, and so converted into private property. 



Up to this time the amount of land which the individual occupied 

 was simply the land upon which he pitched his tent or built his hut ; 

 but after the introduction of property in animals, the amount of land 

 which a man occupied depended mainly upon the number of his ani- 

 mals. If he had ten animals, he occupied land enough to support ten 

 animals ; if he had thirty animals, he occupied land enough for thirty 

 animals. Every man turned all his animals out upon the land. It was 

 a process of capitalizing the land. Every man had, in his animals, a 

 certain amount of capital. This capital he invested in the land, and 

 as a rule, he profited according to his investment. 



The capitalists lived in companies, — companies of kinsmen ; and 

 the amount of land which each company capitalized depended upon 

 the number of animals owned by its members. Each company occu- 

 pied a pasture sufficient for the maintenance of all the animals belong- 

 ing to its members. Then each member capitalized a certain number 

 of shares, according to the number of his animals. 



Suppose, for example, we have a company of four capitalists, — 

 A, B, C, and D. Suppose A has six animals, B three, C two, and 

 D four. Altogether they have fifteen. Allowing four acres of pas- 

 ture for each animal, the company would require, for the fifteen ani- 

 mals owned by its members, sixty acres. Having, as a company, taken 

 possession of sixty acres of pasture land, A would capitalize twenty- 

 four (G X 4) acres, B twelve (3 X 4), C eight (2 X 4), and D six- 

 teen (4X4). The holding of land in this way may very properly 

 be described as a holding of capitalized shares. 



As long as there was plenty of live stock, and everybody had suffi- 

 cient for his maintenance, it was not necessary to resort to agriculture. 

 It was only among the poorer classes that agriculture was undertaken 

 at first. There was plenty of land in the early time of which we are 

 speaking, and everybody could cultivate as much as he pleased ; but 

 he never pleased to cultivate more than was absolutely necessary, — 

 more than he could not help cultivating, — until he was able to make 

 some of his fellow men do the work for him. Agriculture was very 

 little resorted to until slavery, or serfdom, was introduced. 



