ABSTRACT
In all societies raised above absolute savagery some form of property will be found. That is, there will be some generally enforced law or custom as to ownership. So long as men lived on wild animals or plants and these were abundant there would be no ideas about ownership except in respect of simple weapons and ornaments. But people would be unwilling to tend animals or cultivate the fields, unless they had a reasonable hope of enjoying the fruits of their labour. To reap where you have not sown may be pleasurable to the reaper, but if it becomes a common practice there will be nothing to be reaped. It need hardly be again pointed out that no attempt will be made to benefit the future by any form of saving without security. As soon, therefore, as pastoral or agricultural life begins, each little group endeavours to protect its belongings from other groups and begins to evolve customs and laws as to division of the produce within the group. Gradually the groups, either by agreement or by conquest, become united and law and custom rather than force make them respect each other’s property. In simple societies there will be no elaborate mechanism of law courts, police and prisons to enforce rules about property. In small societies, public opinion is a most powerful weapon (as we all learn from school life), and the few who are daring enough to disregard it are dealt with by the injured party. Police and lawyers are another example of division of labour and are rendered necessary, or at any rate convenient, by our large and complicated societies.
