From the preceding Chapters, especially that which treats of Utility and Value, we may deduce this formula:
Every man enjoys GRATUITOUSLY all the utilities furnished or created by nature, on condition of taking the trouble to appropriate them, or of returning an equivalent service to those who render him the service of taking that trouble for him.
Here we have two facts combined and mixed up together, although in their own nature distinct.
We have the gifts of nature—gratuitous materials, gratuitous forces. This is the domain of Community.
We have also human efforts devoted to the appropriation of these materials, to the direction of these forces,—efforts which are exchanged, estimated, and compensated. This is the domain of Property.
In other words, as regards both, we are not owners of the Utility of things, but of their Value, and value is simply the appreciation of reciprocal services.
Property, Community, are two ideas correlative to the ideas of onerosity and gratuitousness, on which they are founded.
That which is gratuitous is common, for every one enjoys a portion of it, and enjoys it unconditionally.
That which is onerous is appropriated, because trouble taken, effort made, is the condition of its enjoyment, as the enjoyment is the reason for taking the trouble, or making the effort.
Does an exchange intervene? It is effected by a comparative estimate of the two efforts or the two services.