Reflections on the formation & the distribution of riches,[1] by Mr. X.
S1
Impossibility of Commerce upon the supposition of an equal division of lands, wherein every man should possess only what was necessary for his own support.
If the land were so distributed among all the inhabitants of a country that each of them had precisely the quantity of it necessary for his support and nothing more, it is evident that, all being equal, no one would be willing to work for others. No one, besides, would possess anything with which to pay for the labour of another; for each, having only as much land as he needed to produce his subsistence, would consume all that he had gathered, and would have nothing that he could exchange for the labour of the others.
S2
The above hypothesis has never existed, & could not have continued. The diversity of soils & the multiplicity of wants lead to the exchange of the products of the land for other products.
This hypothesis can never have existed, because the lands have been cultivated before they have been divided; that
- ↑ Des richesses
