Property rights came about in an economy without necessarily a huge government, or maybe even no government at all. The idea is that he's asking, when do property rights come about? And he's essentially saying, it's indudgenous. It comes depending on the circumstances. He contrasts this with the american southwest, where the lands are so vast and it's very hard to establish property rights. If you have beave beavers in a certain area, you don't want people from other tribes coming and taking those beavers. So they started establishing property rights because it was worth it.