18.17. 17. Of political Laws among Nations who have not the Use of Money.
The greatest security of the liberties of a people who do not cultivate
the earth is their not knowing the use of money. What is gained by
hunting, fishing, or keeping herds of cattle cannot be assembled in such
great quantity, nor be sufficiently preserved, for one man to find
himself in a condition to corrupt many others: but when, instead of
this, a man has a sign of riches, he may obtain a large quantity of
these signs, and distribute them as he pleases.
The people who have no money have but few wants; and these are
supplied with ease, and in an equal manner. Equality is then
unavoidable; and hence it proceeds that their chiefs are not despotic.
If what travellers tell us be true, the constitution of a nation of
Louisiana, called the Natches, is an exception to this. Their chief
disposes of the goods of all his subjects, and obliges them to work and
toil, according to his pleasure.
[7]
He has a power like that of the
grand signior, and they cannot even refuse him their heads. When the
presumptive heir enters the world, they devote all the sucking children
to his service during his life. One would imagine that this is the great
Sesostris. He is treated in his cottage with as much ceremony as an
emperor of Japan or China.
Footnotes
[7]
"Edifying Letters," coll. xx.
