Wealth
‹ 7 · Outline · 9 ›
8.Property: its origin, justification and security
8a.Property as natural, necessary or a human convention
See also: Justice 1c
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 970–971Property not to be devoured vainly except by mutual trade; men and women share what they earn; do not covet.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 165–168Raphael says cure needs abolishing private property; More replies that common ownership destroys abundance because no one is driven to work.read · scan
Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33
- p. 280Land granted in fee-farm for rent to fishermen, giving them assured property for drying fish.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 390–391Without law there is no property, no mine and thine, only what one can get and keep.read · scan
First Charter of VirginiaVol. 43
- p. 57Lands are to be granted to persons nominated by the colony council, held in free and common socage.read · scan
- p. 58Lands are divided among undertakers and planters in such estates as the colony council orders.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 104–106'This dog is mine' said children: the beginning and image of the usurpation of all the earth, i.e. property.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 378The duke has no natural right to his wealth, any more than the false king to his kingdom.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 91Notions of property, meum and tuum, are taught gradually; children first take only what parents give.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 387Honest man is a pledge in dealing; justice secures property.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 177–178Cultivation is pointless without property, since the fruits of labor would be precarious.read · scan
- p. 178–180Cultivation of the earth requires land to be parcelled out as property, impossible in the state of nature.read · scan
- p. 198The first to enclose land and say 'this is mine' founded civil society, bringing crimes and wars; the earth belongs to all.read · scan
- p. 201–202Huts introduced a species of property and with it quarrels and battles.read · scan
- p. 204Cites Locke: where there is no property there can be no injury.read · scan
- p. 205–206Need for another's aid and surplus provisions ended equality and gave rise to property.read · scan
- p. 207Property arises from labour and the distribution of land after tillage.read · scan
- p. 211The rich suffer from perpetual war and their titles by force or labour are precarious.read · scan
- p. 212Laws fixed property and inequality for the benefit of the few.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 67–68Private property in land brings rent, and advance of stock brings profit, as successive deductions from the produce of labour.read · scan
- p. 124Labour is the original foundation of all other property.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 272The instinct to preserve what belongs to one secures property and keeps communities settled.read · scan
- p. 353Peasants claim the cultivator of the soil is true proprietor; landlords' titles by prescription and succession are attacked as usurpation, force and fraud.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 358–360She takes pride in the fields, crops and boundary lands that are all hers.read · scan
Treaty with the Six NationsVol. 43
- p. 229US acknowledges Indian lands as their property, saleable only when they choose to sell to US purchasers.read · scan
- p. 230Defines Seneca land boundaries and acknowledges it as their property, saleable only to the United States.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 46–47Property institutions and laws spring from selfishness rather than love and reason; inherited wealth is tainted.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5
- p. 239–240Property rights are unequal owing to skill, virtue and patrimony; owners should judge protection of their herds.read · scan
- p. 242Property will be protected by natural necessity, as the farmer will not plant without prospect of harvest.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 258–259Property will be universality when love enters it; no one deserves to be heard against property unless superior to it.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 283Socialist opinion might make it infamous to own more than a small property or any unearned income.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 150Value of an estancia, its cattle, horses and sheep, and its asking price.read · scan
- p. 433–434Discussion over the right of sale of lands, tracing successive possessors.read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28
- p. 401–403Private property and exclusive enjoyment threaten true enjoyment of the landscape.read · scan
Convention Between the United States and the Republic of PanamaVol. 43
- p. 451–452Grants of land, islands and water use rights for canal operation.read · scan
8b.Common property, the golden age and Utopian communism
See also: State 4c
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 427Believers hold all things in common, selling possessions and distributing to each according to need.read · scan
- p. 431–432Believers hold all things in common, selling lands and laying proceeds at the apostles' feet for distribution by need.read · scan
Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33
- p. 95Germans prize herds as their only riches, disdain silver and gold, and barter in remote regions.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 95The friends plan a common household with pooled goods, the wealthy Romanianus most zealous, and no private property.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 165Where possessions are private and money rules, a commonwealth cannot be justly governed; Utopian common property yields abundance.read · scan
- p. 165Private property leaves the many in poverty while a few hoard; equality of goods is the only way to a commonwealth's wealth.read · scan
- p. 168–169Utopian commonwealths are said to flourish in more wealth than Europe's though Europeans are not inferior in riches.read · scan
- p. 172–174They produce a surplus shared with neighbors, and necessaries are obtained from city magistrates without exchange.read · scan
- p. 174Houses have unlocked doors and nothing private, and are exchanged by lot every ten years, showing community of goods.read · scan
- p. 183Goods are taken freely from common storehouses without money; abundance removes covetousness, and pride in superfluous display is absent.read · scan
- p. 189Shared goods leave none poor; surpluses are redistributed among cities freely, exported with a seventh given to the poor, and trade credit is held by the city.read · scan
- p. 215Losses of friends' private goods weigh more than loss of common surplus; war is folly if bought too dear.read · scan
- p. 232–236Argues that communal property and abolition of private wealth leave every man rich and free from care, unlike other nations.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of FriendshipVol. 32
- p. 72Sharing goods between brothers distracts brotherly alliance, since one's riches are another's poverty.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 78–79Golden age praised because 'thine' and 'mine' were unknown; all things held in common, earth yielding freely without ploughing or toil.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 419Gonzalo would abolish traffic, riches, poverty, property, and use of metal.read · scan
- p. 419–422Gonzalo's commonwealth would lack riches, and the mockers jeer at it as idle.read · scan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1300Richest is poor and poorest lives in abundance; no locks, since goods are shared.read · scan
- p. 1310–1311All things are held in common, and what one has is another's.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 233–234No one grows richer because goods are shared; property needed for a chief to arise.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 143–144Islanders hold property in common, and Mr. Bingham indignantly rejects locking up money in a chest.read · scan
- p. 154Horses cost only a few dollars and are held nearly as common property.read · scan
William Morris, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1195–1196Attacks private riches that enslave others; all Mine and Thine shall become Ours, with common wealth of beauty and art.read · scan
8c.The defence of property against confiscation
See also: Revolution 7a · Law 6c · Tyranny 8b · Religion 13b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 19–20Eurymachus hopes Telemachus keeps his possessions against violent seizure.read · scan
- p. 301–302Agelaus threatens to confiscate Mentor's possessions and join them to Odysseus' wealth, casting his family out.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 916–917Orphan's property may be touched only to improve it.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 55Men forget a father's death sooner than loss of patrimony; the prince must not seize subjects' property.read · scan
- p. 59Rapacity and interference with subjects' property most readily make a prince hated.read · scan
- p. 74–75A prince should secure subjects' trade, agriculture and property from confiscation and taxes, rewarding those enriching the state.read · scan
Nathaniel Ward, The Body of LibertiesVol. 43
- p. 67–68Property taken for public use requires compensation; monopolies barred except for useful inventions; free inheritance.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 180–181Property's stability threatened by men who profit from insecurityread · scan
- p. 184Poor country curates regard property with envy and are ready to join in plunder of church and secular wealth.read · scan
- p. 189–190Hereditary property is ballast of the commonwealth; France's destroyed property ruined rational liberty.read · scan
- p. 196Partners' shares in the joint stock are proportionate to what each contributes.read · scan
- p. 205Confiscation and insecurity of property reduce virtuous persons to beggary or crime.read · scan
- p. 236Church property is incorporated with private property, of which the state is only guardian and regulator, not owner.read · scan
- p. 238–239Burke defends church revenues as property no worse held than nobles' estates; too much or too little in any hand is no ground for seizure.read · scan
- p. 240–241Property of church and poor must not be a resource for national emergencies; confiscation reduces men to indigence.read · scan
- p. 242Ecclesiastics' goods are declared to belong to the state, denying their property rights.read · scan
- p. 249–250The revolution in property is unmatched; the cardinal's public-spirited use of revenues is contrasted with the duke's.read · scan
- p. 250–251Confiscation of church property and millions in rents is condemned as robbery, with property defended against the doctrine of the rights of men.read · scan
- p. 285Confiscation and the destruction of secure property endanger all property; prescription protects possession from indigent power's cupidity.read · scan
- p. 286Levelling doctrines about property are the source of the alarm.read · scan
- p. 288–289Minds should stay tender of property amid coming political changes.read · scan
- p. 290Corporate revenues with public direction serve long-range public purposes.read · scan
- p. 337Parliaments were a great security to private property, guarded even when personal liberty did not exist.read · scan
- p. 374–375Financial contrivances are good only when built on a settled order and the principles of property.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Letter to a Noble LordVol. 24
- p. 389Popular economical demands, if complied with, would have opened the way to sacking all property.read · scan
- p. 407Property secured by prescription; the Duke's grants safe as long as property laws endure.read · scan
- p. 407–408Constitution secures property and dignity of every kind and quality for high and low alike.read · scan
- p. 408Privilege allowed to wealth won't save the great; property will be plundered.read · scan
- p. 411–412The Duke's vast landed property invites confiscation as an affront to the 'rights of man'.read · scan
Treaty with Great Britain (1783)Vol. 43
- p. 177–178Restitution of confiscated estates and property, with refund of purchase price to present possessors.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 269–270He fears the looting habit would spread from bread to wine, threatening shopkeepers' property.read · scan
- p. 473–474Perpetua takes his money and silver to bury in the garden to protect them from plunder.read · scan
- p. 497–498Buried goods are found stolen; Perpetua urges reclaiming property from neighbours while Don Abbondio prefers to let it go.read · scan
- p. 498–499Perpetua taunts him to recover furniture held by neighbours.read · scan
Constitution of the United StatesVol. 43
- p. 194–195Private property may not be taken for public use without just compensation.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 82Reliance on property and governments protecting it is want of self-reliance; men esteem what one has, not what one is.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 387–388Property is so perfect that it seems peculiar to the English; the king cannot step on a peasant's acre.read · scan
Treaty with France (1803)Vol. 43
- p. 251–252Property rights of inhabitants and transfer of public lands and buildings are protected.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, DemocracyVol. 28
- p. 453–454Property is safe under popular rule; the beggar becoming part owner ceases to threaten it.read · scan
Treaty with Spain (1819)Vol. 43
- p. 271–272Property titles and claims for seizures and damages are settled between the nations.read · scan
Treaty with Spain (1898)Vol. 43
- p. 446Cession does not impair property rights of individuals, corporations or churches; Spaniards retain property and the right to carry on industry and commerce.read · scan
Convention Between the United States and the Republic of PanamaVol. 43
- p. 452–453Monopoly on canal or railroad communication; private property titles preserved, with damages appraised and paid by the US.read · scan
- p. 459–460Panama renounces future earnings, pecuniary claims and reversionary property rights in the canal concessions, granting them absolutely to the United States.read · scan
8d.Inheritance, inequality and the concentration of estates
See also: Family 12b
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 18–19Wooers eat his substance; a king's house waxes rich.read · scan
- p. 29The wooers plan to divide his substance if he dies; his father's treasure-chamber is described.read · scan
- p. 188Eumaeus tallies Odysseus's great herds, which the wooers waste and devour.read · scan
Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8
- p. 79–83Orestes is banished from the wealth of his father's house, which usurpers revel in.read · scan
- p. 87–88Loss of inheritance is one motive urging Orestes to act.read · scan
- p. 110–111Orestes would retrieve his father's wealth and the house's fortune.read · scan
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 762–763Hundreds of carts of money, dishes, silk, grain and cattle make up the dowry, and cattle multiply through her merit.read · scan
Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12
- p. 225–226Unequal distribution of property: the high-born impoverished themselves through extravagance while riches passed to low-born persons, breeding instability.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 332–333Antony holds Caesar's property and refuses the young Caesar's legacy to citizens.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 967–968Property management for orphans and fools; rich abstain, poor take reasonably; shares of inheritance.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 142Sheep, grown great devourers, swallow up men; enclosure for wool is a cause of theft peculiar to England.read · scan
- p. 142Landowners enclose fields for sheep, evict husbandmen, raise prices; covetousness ruins tillage, and the poor cannot buy cloth or food.read · scan
- p. 142Enclosure for sheep pasture and monopoly by a few rich men raise prices, ruin husbandry and produce poverty amid riotous luxury.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 232Engrossing of land into few hands impoverishes the commons, leaving them cottagers, hired servants or beggars while great encroachers care nothing.read · scan
- p. 233Landowners pull down cottages to avoid poor relief; concentration of land in few hands is the root of increasing poverty, which Romans limited by tenure.read · scan
- p. 299Great men turn graziers and tradesmen, engrossing the country's wealth and leaving the commons weak.read · scan
- p. 301Classifies the poor into impotent, casual and thriftless, and describes covetous men creating beggars by enclosing commons.read · scan
- p. 301Dispossessed poor become beggars or thieves; rich resist agrarian laws, and a wall of men beats stacks of corn and bags of money.read · scan
- p. 316Covetousness abridges the old commons privileges of Ely's inhabitants; fens benefit their owners.read · scan
- p. 317Landlords appropriate commons' commodity; island praised for its produce of grain, wine, fish, metals.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 226–227The letter tempts with half the father's revenue and inheritance.read · scan
Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47
- p. 876Overreach plans to buy up all land, harrying Frugal by trespass, lawsuits and arson until he sells cheap.read · scan
- p. 876–879Overreach, a rich man, glories in ruining gentry and having their heirs serve his daughter as bondslaves.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 378–379Inherited wealth is not a natural right but a human institution; ancestors acquired it by accident and other men equally capable lost it.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 208–209Unequal talents and labour produce inequality of fortunes and the first effects of property.read · scan
- p. 210–211Growth of estates forced the poor to depend on the rich; usurpations and pillaging follow.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 251Argues great estates, heavy rents and interest circulate wealth through needless trades; humble use of things would lessen oppression.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 395Inequality of landed fortunes grew despite the Agrarian law limiting holdings; the rich held the land and trades, leaving poor freemen without subsistence.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18
- p. 210–211Constance's jewels are a temptation, and Mrs. Hardcastle's management of her fortune motivates the match.read · scan
- p. 212–214Tony feels safe from his stepfather's threats because he will soon be worth fifteen hundred a year.read · scan
- p. 224–225Miss Neville's fortune in jewels, held by her aunt, is left behind reluctantly.read · scan
- p. 235–236Tony gives Hastings the jewels so Miss Neville's fortune is not cheated away.read · scan
- p. 236–237Mrs. Hardcastle withholds Miss Neville's jewels, pretending they are lost, while Tony helps her lie.read · scan
- p. 237–239Mrs. Hardcastle laments being ruined by the lost jewels, while Miss Neville's own jewels are withheld.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 509Where wealth accumulates men decay; one master engrosses the domain and the village is depopulated.read · scan
- p. 509Luxury betrays the land; commons enclosed by the rich, the peasant driven off and city profusion feeds on the poor.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 172Political privileges transmitted like propertyread · scan
- p. 188–189Property must be represented in great unequal accumulations to protect lesser holdings; diffusion weakens its defence against rapine.read · scan
- p. 257Church lands are effectively given to purchasers without money on long credit, who will extort from peasants.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 522–524Contrasts landed property with barons whose property is paper, and nabobs and prodigal young Richard.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 145Even great riches seem insufficient to maintain a title, so younger children are disinherited into convents.read · scan
- p. 604–605The widow, left with abundant goods, becomes mistress of more than she needs.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 431Money from each new Waverley Novel is turned into land, stone and planted wood at Abbotsford.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 47Riches procured by another's labor leave the possessor dependent and unearned; advantage remains with the earner, not the heir.read · scan
- p. 48Inherited property is preyed on by natural enemies; to the heir goods are masters, not means.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5
- p. 241Property passes by gift or inheritance to non-creators; the constitution of property may enrich the rich and degrade persons.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 404Great estates need creative economy to stay great; church lands were plundered and granted to favorites.read · scan
- p. 406London palaces and estates of ancient families show amassed wealth and galleries of art.read · scan
- p. 407Vast estates of dukes grow larger, absorbing small freeholds; landownership concentrated from 250,000 owners in 1786 to 32,000 in 1822.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 123–124General Rosas owns seventy-four square leagues of land with immense herds and fortified estancia.read · scan
John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28
- p. 132Land ownership theories are both false; limiting incomes would fail as accumulative wealth reasserts itself in another sign.read · scan
8e.Landlords, rents and tenants
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 354–355Pliny reforms farm leases, taking rent in kind because tenants ran in arrears and consumed produce.read · scan
- p. 361Letting his lands, dressing vineyards, and reducing rents in unfruitful seasons.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 142Idle gentlemen live off tenants' labour, raise rents and spend prodigally, casting off retainers into poverty.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 428–429Farm yields less than half the promised income; a rich citizen's power overrides the poorer man's claim.read · scan
- p. 432Dispute over rent of seventy versus sixty-five crowns on his farm, reduced by trickery.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 298Farmers' household goods changed from wooden to pewter and silver; rents rose while landlords seize tenants' savings.read · scan
- p. 299Attacks rising rents, usury and landlords' exactions from tenants as grievous economic oppression.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46
- p. 399–410Caliban's complaint of dispossession of his property, the island.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 827–832Pescara is pressed to seize Antonio's lands; the brothers' letters of safe-conduct are nets to entrap him.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 352–353Feudal rents and dues of landed property originate in conquest; redemption was permitted but no money furnished.read · scan
- p. 354The husbandman's concern with rent is set against the burghers' concern with titles of honour.read · scan
- p. 354–355The Assembly protects property only where its own interest lies, having seized church lands; the market in confiscated lands explains why rents are not abolished.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 151–152Contrasts the laird's rents, silk purse and waste with the cottar's bare subsistence.read · scan
- p. 153Poor tenants are scorned and bullied by the gentry and factor, yet find modest comforts.read · scan
J. Wilson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1064A degenerate Lord banished the clansmen for his sheep.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 340–341Only a hardy, wise people could make a small territory great; Ireland's poverty and poor land relations.read · scan
- p. 410Dukes' agricultural improvements let six million live on land that fed three million.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 179Landlordism's superstitions challenged; tenant tenure and rent assessed by the State.read · scan
- p. 180His plan offered landlords sale to the State or retention on new conditions.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 271–272Extreme poverty among agricultural labourers is attributed to the feudal-like land system with low wages and diet of beans.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Twenty-Four Years AfterVol. 23
- p. 402The poor mother in scanty rooms depends on a wealthy landlord known for strictness in collecting dues.read · scan
‹ 7 · Outline · 9 ›