542 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



the Rechabites and the people of Petra, who by their vov/ 

 &quot;were not allowed to possess either vineyards or corn 

 fields or houses &quot; but were bound &quot; to continue the nomadic 

 life.&quot; And obviously, where the transition to a settled state 

 is effected, the survival of habits and sentiments esta 

 blished during the nomadic state, must long prevent posses 

 sion of land by individuals. Moreover, apart from 

 opposing ideas and customs, there are physical difficulties 

 in the way. Even did any member of a pastoral horde which 

 had become partially settled, establish a claim to exclusive 

 possession of one part of the occupied area, little advantage 

 could be gained before there existed the means of keeping out 

 the animals belonging to others. Common use of the greater 

 part of the surface must long continue from mere inability 

 to set up effectual divisions. Only small portions can at first 

 be fenced off. Yet a further reason why land-owning 

 by individuals, and land-owning by families, establish them 

 selves very slowly, is that at first each particular plot has 

 but a temporary value. The soil is soon exhausted; and 

 in the absence of advanced arts of culture becomes useless. 

 Such tribes as those of the Indian hills show us that primitive 

 cultivators uniformly follow the practice of clearing a tract of 

 ground, raising from it two or three crops, and then abandon 

 ing it : the implication being that whatever private claim had 

 arisen, lapses, and the surface, again becoming wild, reverts to 

 the community. 



Thus throughout long stages of incipient civilization, the 

 impediments in the way of private land-ownership are great 

 and the incentives to it small. Besides the fact that primitive 

 men, respecting the connexion between effort expended and 

 benefit gained, and therefore respecting the right of property 

 in things made by labour, recognize no claim thus estab 

 lished by an individual to a portion of land; and besides the 

 fact that in the adhesion to inherited usage and the inability 

 effectually to make bounds, there are both moral and physical 

 obstacles to the establishment of any such individual 



