Page:Karl Kautsky - Ethics and The Materialist Conception of History - tr. J. B. Askew (1906).pdf/120

 the undertaking the more villages must take a part; the greater the number of the forced labourers the greater the special knowledge required to conduct such works, so much the greater the power and knowledge of the leading officials compared with the rest of the population. Then there grows on the foundation of a peasant economy a priest or official class, as in the river plains of the Nile, the Euphrates, or the Whang-Ho.

Another species of development we find there: where a flourishing peasant economy has settled in fruitful, accessible lands in the neighbourhood of robbers—nomadic tribes. The necessity of guarding themselves against these nomads forces the peasants to form a force of guards, which can be done in various ways. Either a part of the peasantry applies itself to the trade of arms and separates itself from the others who yield them services in return, or the robber neighbours are induced by payment of a tribute to keep the peace and to protect their new proteges from other robbers, or, finally, the robbers conquer the land and remain as lords over the peasantry, on whom they levy a tribute, for which, however, they provide a protective force. The result is always the same—the rise of a new feudal nobility which rules and exploits the peasants.

Occasionally the first and second methods of development unite, then we have, besides a priest and official class, a warrior caste.

Again, quite differently does the peasantry develop on a sea with good harbours, which favour sea voyages, and bring them closer to other coasts with well-to-do populations. By the side of agriculture, fishing arises; fishing which soon passes over into war-piracy and sea commerce. At a particularly suitable spot for a harbour is gathered together plunder and merchants' goods, and there is formed a town of rich merchants. Here the peasant finds a market for his goods; now arise for him money receipts, and also the expenditure of money, money obligations, debts. Soon he is the debtor of the money owners in the town.

Sea piracy and sea commerce, as well as sea war, bring, however, a plentiful supply of slaves into the