Chapter V

Both natural reason and revelation establish that God has given the earth to mankind in common for their subsistence and preservation.

The difficulty is explaining how private property can exist when God gave the world to all in common, without requiring express consent of everyone.

God gave reason and the world for human benefit, but the common goods cannot benefit anyone without being appropriated and removed from their natural state.

Every person owns their own labor and body; whatever one removes from nature's common state and mixes with one's labor becomes private property, excluding others' claims.

The first gathering or labor applied to common goods marks the beginning of private property without requiring consent of all mankind.

Practical examples show that servants cutting meat or drawing water become owners of these goods through their labor without requiring explicit consent from all commoners.

The original law of nature establishes that property begins through labor, whether one hunts game, fishes, or gathers valuable goods from the common.

The same law of nature that grants property through labor also limits it—one may claim only what one can use before it spoils, for anything beyond is theft from others.

In the early world of plenty, one person's labor-based appropriation caused no injury since sufficient common land remained for others.

Property in land is acquired by the same principle as movable goods: one's labor in tilling, planting, and improving it creates an exclusive right.

One's enclosure and improvement of land causes no prejudice to others when 'enough and as good' remains, and one's labor benefits the whole.

God gave the world for human benefit with the expectation that industrious persons would labor and improve it, not that it remain common and uncultivated.

In countries with government and established commons by law, enclosure requires all commoners' consent; but this differs from the original state of the world.

The natural limit on property is set by how much one can labor on and use for one's conveniencies; this prevented injury or competition in early times.

A settler in unoccupied land like America would not injure mankind, as the world still has abundant vacant space, particularly before money's invention.

The invention of money and tacit agreement to value it allowed men to hold unequal possessions without injury, since money itself does not decay.

Before money, one could only justly hold what one used before it perished; hoarding perishables violated natural law and injured neighbors.

Cultivated land yields approximately ten times (or nearer one hundred times) the value of equally fertile uncultivated land, showing labor's contribution.

Of the products useful to human life, labor accounts for the vast majority of value; nature and earth contribute scarcely anything in comparison.

One's property in land extends only to what one tills and uses before spoilage; unused enclosed land reverts to common and may be taken by others.

Pastoral peoples like Abraham's lineage freely roamed common land; only when population pressed did they separate territories by mutual consent.

Labor provides a clear principle by which distinct titles to common land can arise without private dominion in Adam and without universal agreement.

Labor, not land, creates most value; one acre of cultivated tobacco or wheat is vastly more valuable than the same land left in common.

Native Americans possess abundant fertile land but lack comforts because they do not improve it through industry, proving labor's indispensability.

Following commodities like bread from raw materials through production shows that labor accounts for virtually all value; raw materials contribute almost nothing.

A ruler who secures liberty and encourages honest industry will prosper more than one merely controlling large dominions.

The same fertile acre yields £5 worth of wheat in England but nearly nothing in America, showing labor accounts for the vast difference in value.

Producing a loaf involves countless laborers and materials—oxen-breakers, miners, blacksmiths, carpenters, sailors—showing labor's scope in all value.

Because man is master of his own person and labor, he has a great foundation of property in all he produces through his actions.

Labor established the first property rights wherever applied; most of the world remained common for a long time and still does.

As populations increased and money came into use, separate communities established territorial boundaries by positive law and mutual agreement.

One may rightfully claim perishable things up to what one uses before they decay; beyond that is taking others' share.

One may exchange perishable goods for durable ones without injuring others, since this preserves value rather than wasting the common stock.

Money developed as a lasting medium that men agreed to accept in exchange for perishable useful goods.

Money invention gave opportunity for those with varying industry to acquire and maintain enlarged possessions proportional to their labor.

Without money or trade, even abundant land cannot incentivize large accumulation, since one person can use only limited perishable goods.

At humanity's beginning, the entire world resembled pre-commercial America; once money's value became known, men began enlarging possessions.

Through tacit voluntary agreement on money's value, men have agreed to unequal land possession, allowing one to hold more than one personally uses.

Labor as title and spoilage as limit together explain how property could begin in the common without quarrel or uncertainty about rightful shares.