Wherever there is great property
there is great inequality. For one very rich man there must be at least five
hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many.
The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often
both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is
only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable
property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many
successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all
times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he can
never appease, and from whose injustice he can be protected only by the
powerful arm of the civil magistrate continually held up to chastise it. The
acquisition of valuable and extensive property, therefore, necessarily requires
the establishment of civil government. Where there is no property, or at least
none that exceeds the value of two or three days' labour, civil government is
not so necessary. Civil government supposes a certain subordination. But as the
necessity of civil government gradually grows up with the acquisition of
valuable property, so the principal causes which naturally introduce
subordination gradually grow up with the growth of that valuable property.
(...) Men of inferior wealth combine to defend those of superior wealth in the
possession of their property, in order that men of superior wealth may combine
to defend them in the possession of theirs. All the inferior shepherds and
herdsmen feel that the security of their own herds and flocks depends upon the
security of those of the great shepherd or herdsman; that the maintenance of
their lesser authority depends upon that of his greater authority, and that
upon their subordination to him depends his power of keeping their inferiors in
subordination to them. They constitute a sort of little nobility, who feel
themselves interested to defend the property and to support the authority of
their own little sovereign in order that he may be able to defend their
property and to support their authority. Civil government, so far as it is
instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the
defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property
against those who have none at all.
Source:
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Book 5,
Chapter 1, Part 2
