Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/63

Rh exercised over their vassals. This will appear from the following passage, extracted from Dr. Adam Smith:

"The wealth of the great lords and barons (of almost all Europe) consisted almost wholly in lands and the stock on them; and at this time, there being no commerce, or any of the finer manufactures, the great proprietor, having nothing for which he could exchange the greater part of the produce of his lands, which is over and above the maintenance of the cultivators, consumes the whole in rustic hospitality at home. If this surplus produces sufficient to maintain a hundred or a thousand men, he can make no other use of it than to maintain a hundred or a thousand men. He is at all times, therefore, surrounded with a multitude of retainers and dependents, who, having no equivalent to give in return for their maintenance, but being fed entirely by his bounty, must obey him.

"The occupiers of land were in every respect as dependent on the great proprietor as his retainers. Even such as were not in the state of villainage were tenants-at-will, and depended on his good pleasure."

These great proprietors of land, having in their possession all the necessaries of life, forced from the people submission and obedience. Hence, it is evident that it was wealth, both in ancient and