53. First advance furnished by the land although
uncultivated.
The earth was ever the first and the only source of all
riches: it is that which by cultivation produces all revenue; it
is that which has afforded the first fund for advances, anterior
to all cultivation. The first cultivator has taken the grain he
has sown from such productions as the land had spontaneously
produced; while waiting for the harvest, he has supported himself
by hunting, by fishing, or upon wild fruits. His tools have been
the branches of trees, procured in the forests, and cut with
stones sharpened upon other stones; the animals wandering in the
woods he has taken in the chace, caught them in his traps, or has
subdued them unawares. At first he has made use of them for food,
afterwards to help him in his labours. These first funds or
capital have increased by degrees. Cattle were in early times the
most sought after of all circulating property; and were also the
easiest to accumulate; they perish, but they also breed, and this
sort of riches is in some respects unperishable. This capital
augments by generation alone, and affords an annual produce,
either in milk, wool, leather, and other materials, which, with
wood taken in the forest, have effected the first foundations for
works of industry.
