250 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



inanities into larger ones furthers welfare, was shown in our 

 own country when, by the Roman conquest, the incessant 

 fights between tribes were stopped ; and again, in later days, 

 when feudal nobles, becoming subject to a monarch, were de 

 barred from private wars. Under its converse aspect the 

 same truth was illustrated when, amidst the anarchy which 

 followed the collapse of the Carolingian empire, dukes and 

 counts, resuming their independence, became active enemies 

 to one another : their state being such that &quot; when they were 

 not at war they lived by open plunder.&quot; And the history of 

 Europe has repeatedly, in many places and times, furnished 

 kindred illustrations. 



While political organization, as it extends itself throughout 

 masses of increasing size, directly furthers welfare by re 

 moving that impediment to cooperation which the antago 

 nisms of individuals and of tribes cause, it indirectly furthers 

 it in another way. Nothing beyond a rudimentary division 

 of labour can arise in a small social group. Before commo 

 dities can be multiplied in their kinds, there must be multi 

 plied kinds of producers ; and before each commodity can be 

 produced in the most economical way, the different stages 

 in the production of it must be apportioned among special 

 hands. Nor is this all. Neither the required complex com 

 binations of individuals, nor the elaborate mechanical appli 

 ances which facilitate manufacture, can arise in the absence 

 of a large community, generating a great demand. 



443. But though the advantages gained by cooperation 

 presuppose political organization, this political organization 

 necessitates disadvantages ; and it is quite possible for these 

 disadvantages to outweigh the advantages. The controlling 

 structures have to be maintained ; the restraints they impose 

 have to be borne ; and the evils inflicted by taxation and by 

 tyranny may become greater than the evils prevented. 



Where, as in the East, the rapacity of monarchs has some 

 times gone to the extent of taking from cultivators so inucli 



