VII ON THE NATURAL INEQUALITY OF MEN 327 



property of the primitive corporations into their 

 own possession. No doubt, that is history made 

 easy ; but here, once more, fact and cb priori specu- 

 lations cannot be made to fit. 



Let us look at the case dispassionately, and 

 by the light of real history. No doubt, the early 

 system of land tenure by collective several owner- 

 ship was excellently adapted to the circumstances 

 in which mankind found themselves. If it had 

 not been so, it would not have endured so long, 

 nor would it have been adopted by all sorts of 

 different races from the ancient Irish to the 

 Hindoos, and from the Russians to the Kaffirs 

 and Japanese. These circumstances were in the 

 main as follows : That there was plenty of land 

 unoccupied ; that population was very scanty and 

 increased slowly; that wants were simple; that 

 people were content to go on living in the same 

 way, generation after generation ; that there was 

 no commerce worth speaking of; that manu- 

 factures were really that which they are etymo- 

 logically things made by the hands ; and that 

 there was no need of capital in the shape of money. 

 Moreover, with such methods of warfare as then 

 existed, the system was good for defence, and not 

 bad for offence. 



Yet, even if left to itself, to develop undis- 

 turbedly, without the intrusion of force, fraud 

 or militarism in any shape, the communal system, 

 like the individual-owner system or the State- 



