The following, then, is such a
deduction as a mere jurist would put forward.
There are various natural products in a country which, as regards
the number and quantity in which they exist, must be considered as
specially produced (artefacta) by the work of the state; for the
country would not yield them to such extent were it not under the
constitution of the state and its regular administrative government,
or if the inhabitants were still living in the state of nature. Sheep,
cattle, domestic fowl the most useful of their kind- swine, and such
like, would either be used up as necessary food or destroyed by beasts
of prey in the district in which I live, so that they would entirely
disappear, or be found in very scant supplies, were it not for the
government securing to the inhabitants their acquisitions and
property. This holds likewise of the population itself, as we see in
the case of the American deserts; and even were the greatest
industry applied in those regions- which is not yet done- there
might be but a scanty population. The inhabitants of any country would
be but sparsely sown here and there were it not for the protection
of government; because without it they could not spread themselves
with their households upon a territory which was always in danger of
being devastated by enemies or by wild beasts of prey; and further, so
great a multitude of men as now live in any one country could not
otherwise obtain sufficient means of support.
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