individual has of acquiring useful things by labor supposes necessarily that of preserving them, of enjoying them, and of disposing of them without reserve. * * * Thus Liberty conceived in this manner becomes property. * * * The Physiocrats, then, placed absolute freedom, or property—as the fundamental right of man—freedom of Person, freedom of Opinion, and freedom of Contract, or Exchange; and the violation of these as contrary to the law of Providence, and therefore the cause of all evil to man."[1]
Another great writer says: "Natural laws which political economy discovers, whether we call them laws of production or laws of distribution, have the same proof, the same sanction and the same constancy as the physical laws. Human laws change, but the natural laws remain, the same yesterday, to-day and to-morrow, world without end. * * * And so it has been with attempts of human law to fix and regulate prices, which involve the same great laws of distribution in combined forms. Human law is always potent to do as mankind will with what has been produced but it cannot directly affect distribution. That it can reach only through production. * * * If we look over the legislation by which the ruling portion of our communities have striven to affect the distribution of wealth, we shall find that (as if conscious of its hopelessness) they have seldom if ever tried directly to affect the distribution of wealth; but have tried to affect distribution indirectly through production."
It is to be remembered that Mr. Mill was ultimately driven to the same conclusion, and, accordingly,
- ↑ Henry Dunning MacLeod, "Elements of Economics," Book I, Chap. V, Sec. 3.
