This prediction is also in accord with the anthropological
observations of the most primitive societies.
The simplest food-gathering and hunting societies
are normally made up of bands that have, including
the children, only about 50 or 100 people. In other
words, such a band will normally contain only a few
families that need to cooperate. Anthropologists find
that primitive tribes normally maintain peace and
order by voluntary agreement, and that is to some
extent what Tacitus, Caesar, and other classical writers
observed among the less advanced Germanic
tribes. The most primitive tribes tend to make all
important collective decisions by consensus, and
many of them do not even have chiefs. When a band
becomes too large or disagreement is intense, the
band may split, but the new bands normally also
make decisions by unanimous consent. If a tribe is in
the hunting-and-gathering stage, there is also little or
no incentive for anyone to subjugate another tribe or
to keep slaves, since captives cannot generate enough
surplus above subsistence to justify the costs of
guarding them.' Thus within the most primitive
tribes of preagriculturalh istory, the logical presumption
that the great gains from a peaceful order can be
achieved by voluntary agreement appears to hold true.bandit will take only a part of income in taxes,
because he will be able to exact a larger total amount
of income from his subjects if he leaves them with an
incentive to generate income that he can tax.