CHAPTEK XVII. 



FEEE LABOUR AND CONTRACT. 



808. THE beginning of this chapter is but nominally dis 

 tinguishable from the end of the last, since the stage there 

 described passes insensibly into the stage to be described 

 here. By as much as cooperation ceases to be compulsory, by 

 so much does it become voluntary ; for if men act together 

 they must do it either willingly or unwillingly. Or, to state 

 the fact in the language of Sir Henry Maine, the members of 

 a society may be united under relations of status, prescribing 

 and enforcing their graduated positions and duties, or, in the 

 absence of these relations of status, they must fall into rela 

 tions of contract relations determined by their agreements 

 to perform services for specified payments. 



Hence, if social life is to go on at all, it is a necessity that 

 as fast as the one system of cooperation decreases the other 

 system must increase. Here we have to trace as well as we 

 can the incidents of the transition. 



809. Under certain of its forms contract arises in early 

 stages. As soon as the reciprocal making of gifts has passed 

 into barter (vol. ii., pp. 99, 668 and 754) every transaction 

 of exchange implies a momentary contract : it is understood 

 that for a thing given some other thing will be given in re 

 turn. If there is an interval between the two acts there 

 arises a more obvious bargain, tacit though unspecified. In 

 a kindred manner, among the uncivilized and semi-civilized, 



occur agreements for services. When, as occasionally hap- 



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