Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
In considering the institution of property as a question in social
philosophy, we must leave out of consideration its actual origin in any of
the existing nations of Europe. We may suppose a community unhampered by
any previous possession; a body of colonists, occupying for the first time
an uninhabited country. (1.) If private property were adopted, we must
presume that it would be accompanied by none of the initial inequalities
and injustice which obstruct the beneficial operation of the principle in
old society. Every full-grown man or woman, we must suppose, would be
secured in the unfettered use and disposal of his or her bodily and mental
faculties; and the instruments of production, the land and tools, would be
divided fairly among them, so that all might start, in respect to outward
appliances, on equal terms. It is possible also to conceive that, in this
original apportionment, compensation might be made for the injuries of
nature, and the balance redressed by assigning to the less robust members
of the community advantages in the distribution, sufficient to put them on
a par with the rest. But the division, once made, would not again be
interfered with; individuals would be left to their own exertions and to
the ordinary chances for making an advantageous use of what was assigned
to them. (2.) If individual property, on the contrary, were excluded, the
plan which must be adopted would be to hold the land and all instruments
of production as the joint property of the community, and to carry on the
operations of industry on the common account. The direction of the labor
of the community would devolve upon a magistrate or magistrates, whom we
may suppose elected by the suffrages of the community, and whom we must
assume to be voluntarily obeyed by them. The division of the produce would
in like manner be a public act. The principle might either be that of
complete equality, or of apportionment to the necessities or deserts of
individuals, in whatever manner might be conformable to the ideas of
justice or policy prevailing in the community.