Finally, and at the risk of repetition, I shall, if I can, expose the fallacy of the premises on which all the three conclusions are based, namely, that ‹natural agents possess or create value›. If I succeed in [p257] this, if I demonstrate that natural agents, even when appropriated, produce, not Value, but Utility, which, passing from the hands of the proprietor without leaving anything behind it, reaches the consumer gratuitously,—in that case, all—Economists, Socialists, Communists—must at length come to a common understanding to leave the world, in this respect, just as it is. «M. Considérant.»[59]—“In order to discover how and under what conditions ‹private property› may Legitimately manifest and develop itself, we must get possession of the ‹fundamental principle of the Right of Property›; and here it is: “Every man «POSSESSES LEGITIMATELY THE THINGS» ‹which have been› «CREATED» ‹by his labour, his intelligence, or›, to speak more generally, «BY HIS ACTIVITY». “This Principle is incontestable, and it is right to remark that it contains implicitly the acknowledgment of the Right of all to the Soil. The earth not having been created by man, it follows in fact, from the fundamental principle of Property, that the Soil, which is a common fund given over to the species, can in no shape legitimately become the absolute and exclusive property of this or that individual who has not created ‹this value›. Let us establish, then, the true Theory of Property, by basing it exclusively on the unexceptionable principle which makes ‹the legitimacy of Property› hinge upon the fact of ‹the› «CREATION» ‹of the thing, or of the value possessed›. To accomplish this we must direct our reasoning to the origin of industry, that is to say, to the origin and development of agriculture, manufactures, the arts, etc., in human society. “Suppose that on a solitary island, on the territory of a nation, or on the entire surface of the earth (for the extent of the field of action makes no difference in our estimate of facts), a generation of mankind devotes itself for the first time to industry—for the first time engages in agriculture, manufactures, etc. Each generation, by its labour, by its intelligence, by the exertion of its own proper activity, ‹creates products, develops value›, which did not exist on the earth in its rude and primitive state. Is it not perfectly evident that, among the first generation of labourers, Property would conform to Right, «PROVIDED» ‹the value or wealth produced by the activity of all› were distributed among the producers «IN PROPORTION TO THE CO-OPERATION» of each in the creation of the general riches? That is beyond dispute. “Now, the results of the labour of this generation may be divided into two categories, which it is important to distinguish.