1 86 Declining Effectiveness of Force 



urgent need which becomes an object of his atten- 

 tion is the desire for well-being, or in other words, 

 wealth. The most rapid way to procure wealth, 

 i. e., all those objects necessary to supply the needs 

 of man, is to produce the desired objects himself; 

 but this is not the only means. He can either 

 rob some other individual of these objects, or 

 force some other individual to make them for him. 

 Since the victim will not give up his wealth of 

 his own free will, without any corresponding 

 remuneration, and since no one wishes to work 

 without any reward, the aggressor must employ 

 force, and economic wars break out between men. 

 These assume two aspects clearly distinguished: 

 at first, raiding expeditions, with the object of 

 seizing such wealth as is movable; later, expedi- 

 tions having as an object to make the victor the 

 master of the immovable objects, cleared spaces 

 in the forest, rich lands, dwellings, etc. At the 

 same time that the goods are taken possession of, 

 the men are seized also. The vanquished be- 

 comes a beast of burden; he is forced to work for 

 the conqueror. In the phase in which the pillaging 

 expeditions are made, the vanquished, seized as 

 booty, was transported to the territory of the 

 conqueror. In the phase of the conquering 

 expeditions, the vanquished remains in his own 

 country, but is reduced to servitude. 



The economic wars replace the alimentary 

 wars, then, at a certain stage of social evolution. 

 Naturally, the economic wars result in numerous 



