ABSTRACT
The authors have chosen their subject in the belief that the world production system under which men live to-day does not satisfy the requirements which may fairly be made of it. In the age which preceded the establishment of legally regulated property relations between men, the world was regarded as material for use in common. But collective use was more real in theory than in practice. Property in land made careful cultivation possible. The products of agriculture belonged to the landowner; possession of these products meant the birth of industries to work them up; and so the owners of raw materials became the owners of manufactured goods. The limitation of the right to use land and raw materials, which property introduced, led to a cleavage between those who were allowed a share in property and those who were not. The output of the necessities of life on the basis of private property in land and raw materials expanded steadily.
