Agrarian Justice
Thomas Paine
[Part 2 of 3]
TO PRESERVE the benefits of what is called civilized life, and to
remedy a at the same time the evil which it has produced, ought to
be considered as one of the first objects of reformed legislation.
Whether that state that is proudly, perhaps erroneously, called
civilization, has most promoted or most injured the general
happiness of man, is a question that may be strongly contested. On
one side, the spectator is dazzled by splendid appearances; on the
other, he is shocked by extremes of wretchedness; both of which it
has erected. The most affluent and the most miserable of the human
race are to be found in the countries that are called civilized.
To understand what the state of society ought to be, it is
necessary to have some idea of the natural and primitive state of
man; such as it is at this day among the Indians of North America.
There is not, in that state, any of those spectacles of human misery
which poverty and want present to our eyes in all the towns and
streets in Europe.
Poverty, therefore, is a thing created by that which is called
civilized life. It exists not in the natural state. On the other
hand, the natural state is without those advantages which flow from
agriculture, arts, science and manufacturers.
The life of an Indian is a continual holiday, compared with the
poor of Europe; and, on the other hand it appears to be abject when
compared to the rich. Civilization, therefore, or that which is so
called, has operated two ways: to make one part of society more
affluent, and the other more wretched, than would have been the lot
of either in a natural state.
It is always possible to go from the natural to the civilized
state, but it is never possible to go from the civilized to the
natural state. The reason is that man in a natural state, subsisting
by hunting, requires ten times the quantity of land to range over to
procure himself sustenance, than would support him in a civilized
state, where the earth is cultivated.
When, therefore, a country becomes populous by the additional aids
of cultivation, art and science, there is a necessity of preserving
things in that state; because without it there cannot be sustenance
for more, perhaps, than a tenth part of its inhabitants. The thing,
therefore, now to be done is to remedy the evils and preserve the
benefits that have arisen to society by passing from the natural to
that which is called the civilized state.
In taking the matter upon this ground, the first principle of
civilization ought to have been, and ought still to be, that the
condition of every person born into the world, after a state of
civilization communities, ought not to be worse than it he had been
born before that period.
But the fact is that the condition of millions, in every country
in Europe, is far worse than if they had been born before
civilization began, or had been born among the Indians of North
America at the present day. I will show how this fact has happened.
It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its
natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to
he, the common property of the human race. In that state every man
would have been born to property. He would have been a joint life
proprietor with the rest in the property of the soil, and in all its
natural productions, vegetable and animal.
But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of
supporting but a small number of inhabitants compared with what it
is capable of doing in a cultivated state. And as it is impossible
to separate the improvement made by cultivation from the earth
itself, upon which that improvement is made, the idea of landed
property arose from that inseparable connection; but it is
nevertheless true, that it is the value of the improvement, only,
and not the earth itself, that is individual property.
Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the
community a ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express the
idea) for the land which he holds; and it is from this ground-rent
that the fund proposed in this plan is to issue.
It is deducible, as well from the nature of the thing as from all
the histories transmitted to us, that the idea of landed property
commenced with cultivation, and that there was no such thing as
landed property before that time. It could not exist in the first
state of man, that of hunters. It did not exist in the second state,
that of shepherds: neither Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor Job, so far as
the history of the Bible may be credited in probable things, were
owners of land.
Their property consisted, as is always enumerated in flocks and
herds, and they traveled with them from place to place. The frequent
contentions at that time about the use of a well in the dry country
of Arabia, where those people lived, also show that there was no
landed property. It was not admitted that land could be claimed as
property.
There could be no such thing at landed property originally. Man
did not make the earth, and though he had a natural right to occupy
it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part
of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office, from
whence the first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the
idea of landed property? I answer as before, that when cultivation
began the idea of landed property began with it, from the
impossibility or separating the improvement made by cultivation from
the earth itself, upon which that improvement was made.
The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the
natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the
common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right of
the individual. But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of
rights, and will continue to be, so long as the earth endures.
It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain
rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we
discover the boundary that divides right from wrong, and teaches
every man to know his own. I have entitled this tract "Agrarian
Justice" to distinguish it from "Agrarian Law."
Nothing could be more unjust than agrarian law in a country
improved by cultivation; for though every man, as an inhabitant of
the earth, is a joint proprietor of it in its natural state, it does
not follow that he is a joint proprietor of cultivated earth. The
additional value made by cultivation, after the system was admitted,
became the property of those who did it, or who inherited ii from
them, or who purchased it. It had originally no owner. While,
therefore, I advocate the right, and interest myself in the hard
case of all those who have been thrown out of their natural
inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property, I
equally defend the right of the possessor to the part which is his.
Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements
ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a
tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has
produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the
inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without
providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification
for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and
wretchedness that did not exist before.
In advocating the case of the persons thus dispossessed, it is a
right, and not a charity, that I am pleading for. Nor it is that
kind of right which, being neglected at first, could not he brought
forward afterwards till heaven had opened the way by a revolution in
the system of government. Let us then do honor to revolutions by
justice, and give currency to their principles by blessings.
Having thus in a few words, opened the merits of the case, I shall
now proceed to the plan I have to propose, which is,
To create a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to
every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum
of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss
of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system
of landed property:
And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every
person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as
they shall arrive at that age.
Means By Which The Fund Is To Be Created
I have already established the principle, namely, that the earth,
in its natural uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued
to be, the common property of the human race; that in that state,
every person would have been born to property; and that the system
of landed property, by its inseparable connection with cultivation,
and with what is called civilized life, has absorbed the property of
all those whom it dispossessed, without providing as ought to have
been done, an indemnification for that loss.
The fault, however, is not in the present possessors. No complaint
is intended, or ought to be alleged against them, unless they adopt
the crime by opposing justice. The fault is in the system, and it
has stolen imperceptibly upon the world, aided afterwards by the
agrarian law of the sword. But the fault can be made to reform
itself by successive generations; and without diminishing or
deranging the property of any of the present possessors, the
operation of the fund can yet commence, and be in full activity, the
first year of its establishment, or soon after, as I shall show.
It is proposed that the payments, as already stated, be made to
every person, rich or poor. It is best to make it so, to prevent
invidious distinctions. It is also right it should be so, because it
is in lieu of the natural inheritance, which, as a right, belongs to
every man, over and above the property he may have created, or
inherited from those who did. Such persons as do not choose to
receive it can throw it into the common fund.
Taking it then for granted that no person ought to be in a worse
condition when born under what is called a state of civilization,
than he would have been had he been born in a state of nature, and
that civilization ought to have made, and ought still to make,
provision for that purpose, it can only be done by subtracting from
property a portion equal in value to the natural inheritance it has
absorbed.
Various methods may be proposed for this purpose, but that which
appears to be the best (not only because it will operate without
deranging any present possessors, or without interfering with the
collection of taxes or emprunts necessary for the purposes of
government and the Revolution, but because it will be the least
troublesome and the most effectual, and also because the subtraction
will be made at a time that best admits it) is at the moment that
property is passing by the death of one person to the possession of
another. In this case, the bequeather gives nothing: the receiver
pays nothing. The only matter to him is that the monopoly of natural
inheritance, to which there never was a right, begins to cease in
his person. A generous man would not wish it to continue, and a just
man will rejoice to see it abolished.
My state of health prevents my making sufficient inquiries with
respect to the doctrine of probabilities, whereon to round
calculations with such degrees of certainty as they are capable of.
What, therefore, I offer on this head is more the result of
observation and reflection than of received information; but I
believe it will be found to agree sufficiently with fact. In the
first place, taking twenty-one years as the epoch of maturity, all
the property of a nation, real and personal, is always in the
possession of persons above that age. It is then necessary to know,
as a datum of calculation, the average of years which persons above
that age will live. I take this average to be about thirty years,
for though many persons will live forty, fifty, or sixty years,
after the age of twenty-one years, others will die much sooner, and
some in every year of that time.
Taking, then, thirty years as the average of time, it will give,
without any material variation one way or other, the average of time
in which the whole property or capital of a nation, or a sum equal
thereto, will have passed through one entire revolution in descent,
that is, will have gone by deaths to new possessors; for though, in
many instances, some parts of this capital will remain forty, fifty,
or sixty years in the possession of one person, other parts will
have revolved two or three times before those thirty years expire,
which will bring it to that average; for were one-half the capital
of a nation to revolve twice in thirty years, it would produce the
same fund as if the whole revolved once.
Taking, then, thirty years as the average of time in which the
whole capital of a nation, or a sum equal thereto, will revolve
once, the thirtieth part thereof will be the sum that will revolve
every year, that is, will go by deaths to new possessors; and this
last sum being thus known, and the ratio per cent to be subtracted
from it determined, it will give the amount or income of the
proposed fund, to be applied as already mentioned.
In looking over the discourse of the English Minister, Pitt, in
his opening of what is called in England the budget (the scheme of
finance for the year 1796), I find an estimate of the national
capital of that country. As this estimate or a national capital is
prepared ready to my hand, I take it as a datum to act upon. When a
calculation is made upon the known capital of any nation, combined
with its population, it will serve as a scale for any other nation,
in proportion as its capital and population be more or less.
I am the more disposed to take this estimate of Mr. Pitt, for the
purpose of showing to that minister, upon his own calculation, how
much better money may be employed than in wasting it, as he has
done, on the wild project of setting up Bourbon kings. What, in the
name of heaven, are Bourbon kings to the people of England? It is
better that the people have bread.
Mr. Pitt states the national capital of England, real and
personal, to be one thousand three hundred millions sterling, which
is about one fourth part of the national capital of France,
including Belgia. The event of the last harvest in each country
proves that the soil of France is more productive than that of
England, and that it can better support twenty-four or twenty-five
millions of inhabitants than that of England can seven or seven and
a half millions.
The thirtieth part of this capital of L1,300,000,000 is
L43,333,333 which is the part that will revolve every year by deaths
in that country to new possessors; and the sum that will annually
revolve in France in the proportion of four to one, will be about
one hundred and seventy-three millions sterling. From this sum of
L43,333,333 annually revolving, is to be subtracted the value of the
natural inheritance absorbed in it, which, perhaps, in fair justice,
cannot be taken at less, and ought not to be taken for more, than a
tenth part.
It will always happen that of the property thus revolving by
deaths every year a part will descend in a direct line to sons and
daughters, and the other part collaterally, and the proportion will
he found to be about three to one; that is, about thirty millions of
the above sum will descend to direct heirs, and the remaining sum of
L13,333,333 to more distant relations, and in part to strangers.
Considering, then, that man is always related to society, that
relationship will become comparatively greater proportion as the
next of kin is more distant; it is therefore consistent with
civilization to say that where there are no direct heirs society
shall be heir to a part over and above the tenth part due to
society.
If this additional part be from five to ten or twelve per cent, in
proportion as the next of kin be nearer or more remote, so as to
average with the escheats that may fall, which ought always to go to
society and not to the government (an addition of ten per cent
more), the produce from the annual sum of L43,333,333 will be:
From L30,000,000 at
ten per cent |
L3,000,000 |
From L13,333,333 at
ten per cent with the addition of ten percent more |
L2,666,666 |
L43,333,333 |
L5,666,666 |
Having thus arrived at the annual amount or the proposed fund, I
come, in the next place, to speak of the population proportioned to
this fund and to compare it with the uses to which the fund is to be
applied.
The population (I mean that of England) does not exceed seven
millions and a half, and the number of persons above the age of
fifty will in that case be about four hundred thousand. There would
not, however, he more than that number that would accept the
proposed ten pounds sterling per annum, though they would he
entitled to it. I have no idea it would be accepted by many persons
who had a yearly income of two or three hundred pounds sterling. But
as we often see instances of rich people falling into sudden
poverty, even at the age of sixty, they would always have the right
of drawing all the arrears due to them. Four millions, therefore, of
the above annual sum of L5,666,666 will be required for four hundred
thousand aged persons, ten pounds sterling each.
I come now to speak of the persons annually arriving at twenty-one
years of age. If all the persons who died were above the age of
twenty-one years, the number of persons annually arriving at that
age must be equal to the annual number of deaths, to keep the
population stationary. But the greater part die under the age of
twenty-one, and therefore the number of persons annually arriving at
twenty-one will be less than half the number of deaths.
The whole number of deaths upon a population of seven millions and
a half will be about 220,000 annually. The number arriving at
twenty-one years of age will be about 100,000. The whole number of
these will not receive the proposed fifteen pounds, for the reasons
already mentioned, though, as in the former case, they would be
entitled to it. Admitting then that a tenth part declined receiving
it, the amount would stand thus:
Fund annually |
L5,666,666 |
|
To 400,000 aged
persons at L10 each |
L4,000,000 |
|
To 90,000 persons of
21 yrs., L15 ster. each |
L1,350,000 |
|
-- |
L5,350,000 |
|
Remains |
L316,666 |
|
There are. in every country, a number blind and lame persons
totally incapable of earning a livelihood. But as it will always
happen that the greater number of blind persons will be among those
who are above the age of fifty years, they will be provided for in
that class. The remaining sum of L316,666 will provide for the lame
and blind under that age, at the same rate of L10 annually for each
person.
PART 3 *
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