Again, if he would give his nuts for a piece of metal,
pleased with its colour; or exchange his sheep for shells, or
wool for a sparkling pebble or a diamond, and keep those by him
all his life he invaded not the right of others, he might heap up
as much of these durable things as he pleased; the exceeding of
the bounds of his just property not lying in the largeness of
his possession, but the perishing of any thing uselesly in it.
Sec. 47. And thus came in the use of money, some lasting
thing that men might keep without spoiling, and that by mutual
consent men would take in exchange for the truly useful, but
perishable supports of life.
Sec. 48. And as different degrees of industry were apt to
give men possessions in different proportions, so this invention
of money gave them the opportunity to continue and enlarge them:
for supposing an island, separate from all possible commerce with
the rest of the world, wherein there were but an hundred
families, but there were sheep, horses and cows, with other
useful animals, wholsome fruits, and land enough for corn for a
hundred thousand times as many, but nothing in the island, either
because of its commonness, or perishableness, fit to supply the
place of money; what reason could any one have there to enlarge
his possessions beyond the use of his family, and a plentiful
supply to its consumption, either in what their own industry
produced, or they could barter for like perishable, useful
commodities, with others? Where there is not some thing, both
lasting and scarce, and so valuable to be hoarded up, there men
will not be apt to enlarge their possessions of land, were it
never so rich, never so free for them to take: for I ask, what
would a man value ten thousand, or an hundred thousand acres of
excellent land, ready cultivated, and well stocked too with
cattle, in the middle of the inland parts of America, where he
had no hopes of commerce with other parts of the world, to draw
money to him by the sale of the product? It would not be worth
the enclosing, and we should see him give up again to the wild
common of nature, whatever was more than would supply the
conveniencies of life to be had there for him and his family.
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