Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
Decade of Life. Males. Females.
1 136 132
2 115 114
3 87 90
4 62 63
5 47 44
6 31 27
7 17 15
8 7 7
9 2 2
Foreign: 1870.
Decade of Life. Males. Females.
1 24 23
2 48 49
3 128 114
4 134 113
5 107 84
6 60 44
7 27 23
8 9 9
9 2 2
BOOK II. DISTRIBUTION.
Chapter I. Of Property.
§ 1. Individual Property and its opponents.
The laws and conditions of the Production of Wealth partake of the
character of physical truths. There is nothing optional or arbitrary in
them. It is not so with the Distribution of Wealth. That is a matter of
human institution solely. The things once there, mankind, individually or
collectively, can do with them as they like. They can place them at the
disposal of whomsoever they please, and on whatever terms. The
Distribution of Wealth depends on the laws and customs of society. The
rules by which it is determined are what the opinions and feelings of the
ruling portion of the community make them, and are very different in
different ages and countries; and might be still more different, if
mankind so chose. We have here to consider, not the causes, but the
consequences, of the rules according to which wealth may be distributed.
Those, at least, are as little arbitrary, and have as much the character
of physical laws, as the laws of production.
We proceed, then, to the consideration of the different modes of
distributing the produce of land and labor, which have been adopted in
practice, or may be conceived in theory. Among these, our attention is
first claimed by that primary and fundamental institution, on which,
unless in some exceptional and very limited cases, the economical
arrangements of society have always rested, though in its secondary
features it has varied, and is liable to vary. I mean, of course, the
institution of individual property.
Private property, as an institution, did not owe its origin to any of
those considerations of utility which plead for the maintenance of it when
established. Enough is known of rude ages, both from history and from
analogous states of society in our own time, to show that tribunals (which
always precede laws) were originally established, not to determine rights,
but to repress violence and terminate quarrels. With this object chiefly
in view, they naturally enough gave legal effect to first occupancy, by
treating as the aggressor the person who first commenced violence, by
turning, or attempting to turn, another out of possession.