The desire to appropriate lies deep in animal nature, being, indeed, a
condition to survival. The consciousness that conflict and consequent
injury may probably result from the endeavour to take that which is held
by another tends to establish the custom of leaving each in possession
of whatever he has obtained by labour. With the passage from a nomadic
to a settled state, ownership of land by the community becomes qualified
by individual ownership; but only to the extent that those who clear and
cultivate portions of the surface have undisturbed enjoyment of its
produce. Habitually the public claim survives, qualified by various
forms of private ownership mostly temporary; but war undermines communal
proprietorship of land, and partly or wholly substitutes for it either
the unqualified proprietorship of an absolute conqueror, or
proprietorship by a conqueror, qualified by the claims of vassals
holding it under certain conditions, while their claims are in turn
qualified by those of dependents attached to the soil. The
individualisation of ownership extended and made more definite by
trading transactions under contract, eventually affects the ownership of
land. Bought and sold by measure and for money, land is assimilated in
this respect to the personal property produced by labour, but there is
reason to suspect that while possession of such things will grow more
sacred, the inhabited area which cannot be produced by labour will
eventually be distinguished as something which may not be privately
possessed.