conflicting
interests between members of the society, the grouping of which in
accordance with a new division of labor causes the creation of new
organs for the purpose of maintaining the society on the one hand and
repressing the antagonistic interests on the other. These organs which
act for the entire group have different forms according to the varying
circumstances of the individual groups, partly through the natural
growth of a hereditary leadership in a world where everything proceeds
naturally and partly through a growing need owing to the development
of conflicts with other groups. How these social functions which were
subsidiary to society came in the course of time to triumph over
society; how the original servant, under favorable conditions became
transformed into the master, how, according to circumstances, this
master made his appearance as Oriental despot or satrap, as Greek
chieftain, as Celtic clan chief, etc., how far he relied on force for
this transformation and finally how the individual leaders associated
themselves into a dominant class we have here no opportunity to
consider. We can only state that real social duties lay at the base of
the political domination and that the political supremacy has only
existed as long as the politically supreme fulfilled these social
functions. How many despotisms have risen and fallen among the
Persians and Hindoos, and everybody knows quite well that the public
management of the irrigation was the prime necessity of agriculture in
those places. The "educated" English were the first to observe this
among the Hindoos; they let the canals and locks fall into disuse and
they have now discovered by the regular recurrence of famine that they
have neglected the only opportunity to make their rule at least as
righteous as that of their predecessors.

But there is another form of class distinction besides the one
described. The natural division of labor in the agricultural families
permitted at a certain point of prosperity the introduction of foreign
labor power. This was particularly the case in countries where the old
common ownership of the soil had disappeared or where at least the old
system of common cultivation had become supplanted by the cultivation
of separate plots by individual families. Production had so far
developed that the human labor force was able to produce more than was
necessary for the support of the individual laborer. The time was ripe
for the