John Locke

John Locke – Second Treatise of Government

        John Locke explains in his Second Treatise of Government all about people’s labour, their property and, currency. Men are given the property of their hands, and whatever they use their hands on, or labor on will transform into their own property. For a long period of time in the human existence, people were satisfied with using what nature had provided them, they would take this item out of the state they were in, called a state of nature and meld their labour into it, and create their own property. A person's labour does not simply mean when a person digs up a carrot, or when he actually digests his food, but rather whenever that person uses his own body, his own property, like the capabilities of his hands to take something out of that state of nature and joining it with his hands, combining his labor with this natural thing, he has made it into his property. When humans only eat, or use just as much as they need there is no excess.

         The problem that arises from this phenomena, is that some people will be greedy and try to keep more of a particular item than they can use, even if that item will go to waste or spoil. If for example a person enjoys eating carrots, he consumes 4-5 a day. Eventually he wants more carrots and he digs up 10 in one day. This person could not eat any extra carrot past 6. The leftover carrots had become spoiled by the next day and went to waste, breaking the same law of nature, that gives us property. Locke explains that God has made as much as one can make use of to any advantage before it spoils, but once it spoils that person has broken the state of nature, because God made nothing to spoil. These carrots that went to waste will not support this persons life, it will not help any person, this left another person at a disadvantage, he basically robbed others of these carrots, which is unethical.

        To combat this unethical situation, a type of trade was started where one person with too many carrots would try to exchange their good for another’s good, while both were benefitting. Because this exchange is advantageous to both parties it is a good trade, this did not bring any injury or any spoil to their property. Eventually money is created because it is a durable good, that means that a gold coin or currency will never spoil like a carrot or acorn would. This money had a determined value that all parties agreed on, or a  constant exchange rate for a perishable item that is necessary for life. Basically this currency is un-spoilable labor that can be easily transmitted. This currency was not orgionally a piece of metal shaped into a circle, it was most likely shells, or shiny rocks, or a diamond, whatever the currency was made out of it, it has to allow the people to hoard it with no worry of its shelf-life.