Locke: The New World

“Even if we were to take Locke's point that accumulated coins liberate us from our moral qualms about keeping barnsful of wheat and root cellars overflowing with rotting crops, we would not thereby be freed from the other limit imposed upon us by natural law. The storage of wealth in the form of money does not leave "enough, and as good" so that others might live. Locke's theory of property violates this second limit set by a natural law the validity of which Locke never questioned or claimed suspended.” (p 574)

Herman Lebovics. "The uses of America in Locke's second treatise of government". Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 47, Nr 4.  University of Pennsylvania Press

The social contract, to Locke is a solution that, like nuclear energy, should only be used as a last resort. Its consequences are permanent and drastic, and it takes a really dire situation in order to equal the cost of the sacrifice. No wonder Locke dramatically called this situation "The State of War", a situation wherein people are no longer sure of their safety, and particularly their property's safety. In the end it is this fear of losing property that tips the balance and makes people to congregate under one body of rulers. 

Preceding the social contract Locke already conceived a community that had all the characteristics of a polity, except a centralized authority. For example, the rules of property were already crystal clear, derived from the belief that the earth was given to man by God for the purpose of cultivation, and that God had created enough of it to satisfy any number of people. News of the far-reaching, fertile plains discovered in the New World undoubtedly fueled these beliefs. To Locke America was a kind of deus ex machina. Here was an entire continent: perceived to be almost empty. The few inhabitant living there in pre-political, peaceful communities inspired Locke to ascribe a historical reality to his natural condition. His emphasis on the reality of the natural condition was meant to underline the feasibility of Locke's ideal government.  

In a way though Locke's interpretation of the New World was naive. He saw it as more bountiful, and purer than it actually was. The truth about the Native American communities was that they were very much political, though not in the sense that Locke understood, and America was not really a land of inexhaustible plenty. There was wealth of course, but wealth is always relative. Having a lot of it does not mean one is rich, except of course if your neighbour has very little. The native Americans knew this, and lived by it. There was social class even among them, though it was not because one owned more land than the other. It was a question of lineage and prowess. Locke's ideas about property and money are based on two faulty premises: that property equals wealth, and that it is inexhaustible.