Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/532

528 character of the surplus was such as to call for cooperation among pastoral peoples and intensive agriculturists, while among extensive agriculturists the familial or domestic system was found sufficient.

The sources of the pastoral surplus might be monopolized to a considerable extent, since herds of domesticated animals were not goods freely reproducible by labor alone. A single individual or a company of cooperating individuals might by labor alone bring down the wild beasts of the forest and plain, but they could not secure a herd of domesticated animals in this way. Herds and flocks were products of generation and their possession was accordingly confined to the comparatively few who had inherited such stocks from their ancestors. These proprietors were, therefore, in their way monopolists who controlled the pastoral surplus source. As for the rest, they could only gain access to this surplus source by serving the proprietors and receiving in return from them either the products of the existing herd or the nucleus of a new. To the extent, then, that the non-proprietors were dependent upon the herd for their livelihood, they could be coerced by the proprietors. It should be borne in mind, however, that the proprietors were also dependent to some extent upon the non-proprietors for the defense of their herds and pasture lands. For this reason they were forced to mitigate the rigor of coercion in order to secure the advantages of cooperation.

The sources of the agricultural surplus were either widespread or confined. In the subtropical zone where the sources of the agricultural surplus were confined it was a comparatively simple matter for a group of conquerors or usurpers to secure control. In the temperate zone, however, where the sources of the agricultural surplus were spread out over a wide area, monopolization was more difficult. By conquest and through inheritance such control was, however, eventually obtained, except where the surplus was not rich enough to make such monopolization worth while. In both cases when proprietorship was established the disinherited peasants were henceforth dependent upon their landlords for their livelihood, for they no longer had free access to the surplus source. As a result, in agricultural regions the coercive system was established in all its rigor during what we speak of as the feudal ages.

The commercial era may be said to have begun with the differentiation of occupations, the institution of markets and the introduction of coined money. With the resultant development of exchange a new surplus source was opened up whose utility producing capacity was practically boundless, provided appropriate means and methods for its exploitation could be devised. In this enquiry we are concerned with the methods rather than with the means of production, with the system