appropriate to himself, without injury to any body, in the first 
ages of the world, when men were more in danger to be lost, by 
wandering from their company, in the then vast wilderness of the 
earth, than to be straitened for want of room to plant in.  And 
the same measure may be allowed still without prejudice to any 
body, as full as the world seems: for supposing a man, or family, 
in the state they were at first peopling of the world by the 
children of Adam, or Noah; let him plant in some inland, 
vacant places of America, we shall find that the possessions 
he could make himself, upon the measures we have given, would 
not be very large, nor, even to this day, prejudice the rest of 
mankind, or give them reason to complain, or think themselves 
injured by this man's incroachment, though the race of men have 
now spread themselves to all the corners of the world, and do 

infinitely exceed the small number was at the beginning.  Nay, 
the extent of ground is of so little value, without labour, 
that I have heard it affirmed, that in Spain itself a man may 
be permitted to plough, sow and reap, without being disturbed, 
upon land he has no other title to, but only his making use of 
it.  But, on the contrary, the inhabitants think themselves 
beholden to him, who, by his industry on neglected, and 
consequently waste land, has increased the stock of corn, which 
they wanted.  But be this as it will, which I lay no stress on; 
this I dare boldly affirm, that the same rule of propriety, 
(viz.) that every man should have as much as he could make use 
of, would hold still in the world, without straitening any body; 
since there is land enough in the world to suffice double the 
inhabitants, had not the invention of money, and the tacit 
agreement of men to put a value on it, introduced (by consent) 
larger possessions, and a right to them; which, how it has done, 
I shall by and by shew more at large.

     Sec. 37.  This is certain, that in the beginning, before the 
desire of having more than man needed had altered the intrinsic 
value of things, which depends only on their usefulness to the 
life of man; or had agreed, that a little piece of yellow 
metal, which would keep without wasting or decay, should be 
worth a great piece of flesh, or a whole heap of corn; though men 
had a right to appropriate, by their labour, each one of himself, 
as much of the things of nature, as he could use: yet this could 
not be much, nor to the prejudice of others, where the same 
plenty was still left to those who would use the same industry.  
To which let me add, that he who appropriates land to himself by 
his labour, does not lessen, but increase the common stock of 
mankind: for the provisions serving to the support of human life, 
produced by one acre of inclosed and cultivated land, are (to 
speak much within compass) ten times more than those which are 
yielded by an acre of land of an equal richness lying waste in 
common.  And therefore he that incloses land, and has a greater 
plenty of the conveniencies of life from ten acres, than he could 
have from an hundred left to nature, may truly be said to give 
ninety acres to mankind: for his labour now supplies him with 
provisions out of ten acres, which were but the product of an 
hundred lying in common.  I have here rated the improved land 
very low, in making its product but as ten to one, when it is 
much nearer an hundred to one: for I ask, whether in the wild 
woods and uncultivated waste of America, left to nature, 
without any improvement, tillage or husbandry, a thousand acres 
yield the needy and wretched inhabitants as many conveniencies of 
life, as ten acres of equally fertile land do in Devonshire, 
where they are well cultivated?

     Before the appropriation of land, he who gathered as much of 
the wild fruit, killed, caught, or tamed, as many of the beasts, 
as he could; he that so imployed his pains about any of the 
spontaneous products of nature, as any way to alter them from the 
state which nature put them in, by placing any of his labour 
on them, did thereby acquire a propriety in them: but if they 
perished, in his possession, without their due use; if the fruits 
rotted, or the venison putrified, before he could spend it, he 
offended against the common law of nature, and was liable to be 
punished; he invaded his neighbour's share, for he had no right, 
farther than his use called for any of them, and they might 
serve to afford him conveniencies of life.

     Sec. 38.  The same measures governed the possession of 
land too: whatsoever he tilled and reaped, laid up and made use 
of, before it spoiled, that was his peculiar right; whatsoever he 
enclosed, and could feed, and make use of, the cattle and product 
was also his.  But if either the grass of his enclosure rotted on 
the ground, or the fruit of his planting perished without 
gathering, and laying up, this part of the earth, notwithstanding 
his enclosure, was still to be looked on as waste, and might be 

the possession of any other.  Thus, at the beginning, Cain 
might take as much ground as he could till, and make it his own 
land, and yet leave enough to Abel's sheep to feed on; a few 
acres would serve for both their possessions.  But as families 
increased, and industry inlarged their stocks, their possessions 
inlarged with the need of them; but yet it was commonly without 
any fixed property in the ground they made use of, till they 
incorporated, settled themselves together, and built cities; and 
then, by consent, they came in time, to set out the bounds of 
their distinct territories, and agree on limits between them and 
their neighbours; and by laws within themselves, settled the 
properties of those of the same society: for we see, that in 
that part of the world which was first inhabited, and therefore 
like to be best peopled, even as low down as Abraham's time, 
they wandered with their flocks, and their herds, which was their