The acquisition of wealth in herds and flocks, does not immediately give rise to the idea of property in land.The different families of a tribe are accustomed to feed their cattle promiscuously, and have no separate possession or enjoyment of the ground employed for that purpose.Having exhausted one field of pasture, they proceed to another; and when at length they find it convenient to move their tents, and change the place of their residence, it is of no consequence who shall succeed them, and occupy the spot which they have relinquished.
'Is not the whole land before thee?' says Abraham to Lot his kinsman; ' Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left.'(8*)The wild Arabs, who inhabit a barren country, are accustomed to change their residence every fortnight, or at least every month.The same wandering life is led by the Tartars; though, from the greater fertility of their soil, their migrations are perhaps less frequent.If people in this situation, during their temporary abode in any one part of a country, should cultivate a piece of ground, this also, like that which is employed in pasture, will naturally be possessed in common.The management of it is regarded as an extraordinary and difficult work, in which it is necessary that they should unite and assist one another;and therefore, as each individual is intitled to the fruit of his own labour, the crop, which has been raised by the joint labour of all, is deemed the property of the whole society.(9*)Thus among the natives of the island of Borneo, it is customary, in time of harvest, that every family of a tribe should reap so much grain as is sufficient for their maintenance;and the remainder is laid up by the public, as a provision for any future demand.Similar practices have probably taken place in most countries, when the inhabitants first applied themselves to the cultivation of the earth.
The Suevi [according to Caesar] are by far the greatest and most warlike of the German tribes.They are said to possess an hundred villages; from each of which a thousand armed men are annually led forth to war.The rest of the people remain at home; and cultivate the ground for both.These the following year take arms, and the former, in their turn, remain at home.Thus neither agriculture, nor the knowledge and practice of the military art is neglected.But they have no separate landed possessions belonging to individuals, and are not allowed to reside longer than a year in one place.They make little use of grain; but live chiefly upon milk and the flesh of their cattle, and are much addicted to hunting.(10*)But the settlement of a village in some particular place, with a view to the further improvement of agriculture, has a tendency to abolish this ancient community of goods, and to produce a separate appropriation of landed estates.When mankind have made some proficiency in the various branches of husbandry, they have no longer occasion to exercise them by the united deliberation and counsel of a whole society.They grow weary of those joint measures, by which they are subjected to continual disputes concerning the distribution and management of their common property, while every one is desirous of employing his labour for his own advantage, and of having a separate possession, which he may enjoy according to his own inclination.
Thus, by a sort of tacit agreement, the different families of a village are led to cultivate different portions of land apart from one another, and thereby acquire a right to the respective produce arising from the labour that each of them has bestowed.
In order to reap what they have sown, it is necessary that they should have the management of the subject upon which it is produced; so that from having a right to the crop, they appear of course entitled to the exclusive possession of the ground itself.
This possession, however, from the imperfect state of early cultivation, is at first continued only from the seed-time to the harvest; and during the rest of the year, the lands of a whole village are used in common for pasturing their cattle.Traces of this ancient community of pasture-grounds, during the winter season, may still be discovered in several parts of Scotland.But after a person has long cultivated the same field, his possession becomes gradually more and more complete; it is continued during the whole year without interruption; and when by his industry and labour he seems justly entitled, not only to the immediate crop that is raised, but to all the future advantages arising from the melioration of the soil.
The additional influence which the captain of a tribe or village is enabled to derive from this alteration of circumstances, may be easily imagined.As the land employed in tillage is at first possessed in common the different branches of husbandry are at first carried on, and even the distribution of the produce is made, under the inspection of their leader who claims the superintendence of all their public concerns.
Among the negroes upon the banks of the river Gambia, the seed-time is a period of much festivity.Those who belong to the same village unite in cultivating the ground, and the chief appears at their head, armed as if he were going out to battle, and surrounded by a band of musicians, resembling the bards of the Celtic nations, who, by singing and playing upon musical instruments, endeavour to encourage the labourers.The chief frequently joins in the music; and the workmen accompany their labour with a variety of ridiculous gestures and grimaces, according to the different tunes with which they are entertained.
