436                     HISTORY OF SETTLEMENTS AND TRADE
B o o k for want of hands, proportionable to their extent?
, xm' , a further divifion of lands would again reduce them
to nothing. In Europe, an obfcure man, who has
but a few acres of land, will make that little eftate
more advantageous to him in proportion, than an
opulent man will the immenfe property he is poffeff-
ed of, either by inheritance or chance. In America,
the nature of the produdions, which are very valu-
able ; the uncertainty of the crops, which are but
few in their kind ; the quantity of flaves, of cattle,
of utenfils neceffary for a plantation ; all this requires
a large ftock, which they have not in fome, and will
foon want in all the colonies, if the lands be parcel-
led out and divided more and more by hereditary
fucceffions.
If a father leave an eftate of 30,000 livres [1250b]
a year, and this eftate be equally divided between
three children, they will all be ruined if they make
three diftind plantations ; the one, becaufe he has
been made to pay too much for the buildings, and
becaufe he has too few Negroes, and too little land
in proportion ; the other two, becaufe they muft
build before they can begin upon the culture of their
land. They will all be equally ruined, if the whole
plantation fhould remain in the hands of one of the
three. In a country where a creditor is in a worfe
ftate than any other man, eftates have rifen to an im-
moderate value. The poffeffor of the whole will be
very fortunate if he is obliged to pay no more for in-
tereft than the net produce of the plantation. Now»
as the primary law of nature is the procuring of fub-
fiftence, he will begin with procuring that without
paying his debts. Thefe will accumulate, and he
will foon become infolvent, and the confufion confe-
quent upon fuch a fituation will end in the ruin of
the .vhole family.
Tne only way to remedy thefe diforders, is to abo-
Kfh the equality of the divifion of land. In this en-
lightened age, government fhould fee the neceflity
of letting the colonies be more flocked with things