[44] Cours d’Economie Politique, p. 310. [Paris, 1911].
[45] Cp. The Complete Works, vol. XIV, p. 109. [Wiener’s ed. 1905].
[46] Id. Ibid. p. 288.
[47] Political Economy, ch. II, p. 60. [London, 1912].
[48] Cf. Histoire de L’Economie Politique en Europe, par J. A. Blanqui, ch. III.—See also Des Raports de L’Economie Politique et de la Morale, par M. H. Baudrillard, lec. II. [Paris, 1883].
[49] See J. N. Keynes, The Scope and Method of Political Economy, ch. II, sec. 1, p. 62. [London, 1897].
B. Interpretation of Property.
I
When two Greek law-givers, Lycurgus and Solon, imposed their laws upon the Greek nation, they both had the same purpose—to establish the equal right of all men to the use of land and other properties. Plutarch, speaking of Lycurgus, observes that at that time “some were so poor that they had no inch of land, and others, of whom there were but few, so wealthy that they possessed all”. Lycurgus persuaded the citizens to restore the land to common use, and they did so. Solon had no other end in giving laws to the Athenians but to set up justice among all his fellow-citizens. He says that ambition of the rich knows no bounds, that they respect neither sacred property nor public treasure, plundering all in defiance of the holy laws of justice. “I had commanded the wealthiest and most powerful to refrain from harming the weak,” says he further, “I had protected great and humble with a double buckler, equally strong both sides, without giving more to one than to the other. My advice has been disdained. Today they are punished for it”[50].