PROPERTY. 549 



which joint cultivation is replaced by separate cultivation of 

 parts portioned out where there results from this a system 

 of periodic redistribution, as of old in certain Greek states, as 

 among the ancient Suevi, and as even down to our own times 

 in some of the Swiss allmends ; ownership of land by indi 

 viduals may and does arise from cessation of the redistribu 

 tion. Says M. de Laveleye concerning the Swiss allmends 

 **in the work of AI. Rowalewsky, we see how the communal 

 lands became private property by the periodic partitioning 

 becoming more and more rare, and finally falling into 

 desuetude.&quot; When not otherwise destroyed, land-owning by 

 the commune tends naturally to end in this way. For besides 

 the inconveniences attendant on re-localization of the mem 

 bers of the commune, positive losses must be entailed by it 

 on many. Out of the whole number, the less skilful and less 

 diligent will have reduced their plots to lower degrees of 

 fertility ; and the rest will have a motive for opposing a re 

 distribution which, depriving them of the benefits of past 

 labours, makes over these or parts of them to the relatively 

 unworthy. Evidently this motive is likely, in course of 

 time, to cause refusal to re-divide; and permanent private 

 possession will result. 



540. An important factor not yet noticed has cooperated 

 in individualizing property, both movable and fixed ; namely, 

 the establishment of measures of quantity and value. Only 

 the ] udest balancing of claims can be made before there come 

 into use appliances for estimating amounts. At the outset, 

 ownership exists only in respect of things actually made or 

 obtained by the labour of the owner; and is therefore nar 

 rowly limited in range. But when exchange arises and 

 spreads, first under the indefinite form of barter and then 

 under the definite form of sale and purchase by means of a 

 circulating medium, it becomes easy for ownership to extend 

 itself to other things. Observe how clearly this extension 

 depends on the implied progress of industrialism. 



