Editing Private property (section)

== History ==

The first evidence of private property may date back to the Babylonians in 1800 BC, as evidenced by the archeological discovery of [[Plimpton 322]], a clay tablet used for calculating property boundaries; however, written discussions of private property were not seen until the Persian Empire, and emerged in the Western tradition at least as far back as [[Plato]].<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Garnsey | first1 = Peter | author-link1 = Peter Garnsey | title = Thinking about Property: From Antiquity to the Age of Revolution | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=f_roIy7ceEsC | series = Ideas in Context | volume = 90 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | date = 2007 | page = 1 | isbn = 978-1139468411 | access-date = 2018-08-28 | quote = The defense of private property has been a feature of philosophical, theological and legal discourse from antiquity to the present day. [...] I begin with Plato's thoughts on property in the ''Republic'' [...].}}</ref>

Before the 18th century, English speakers generally used ''property'' to refer to [[Landed property|land ownership]]. In England, ''property'' came to have a legal definition in the 17th century.<ref>'' The Meaning and Definition of "Property" in Seventeenth-Century England'', by G. E. Aylmer, 1980. Oxford University Press. ''Past and Present'', No. 86 (Feb. 1980), pp.&nbsp;87–97.</ref> Private property defined as property owned by commercial entities emerged with the great European [[chartered company|trading companies]] of the 17th century.<ref>Compare: {{cite book |author1= Bertrand Badie |author2= Dirk Berg-Schlosser |author3= Leonardo Morlino |title= International Encyclopedia of Political Science |publisher= SAGE Publications, Inc |year= 2011 |isbn= 978-1412959636 |page= 2132 |quote=Oliver Letwin, a British conservative theorist, observed that the private sector had to be invented. This occurred with the great European trading companies, such as the British and Dutch East India companies, founded in the 17th century. Notions of property before the Renaissance assumed that different actors had different relations to the same property.}}</ref> The issue of the [[enclosure]] of agricultural land in England, especially as debated in the 17th and 18th centuries, accompanied efforts in philosophy and political thought—by [[Thomas Hobbes]] (1588–1679), [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]] (1611–1677), and [[John Locke]] (1632–1704), for example—to address the phenomenon of property [[ownership]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last= Thompson |first= Paul B |author-link= Paul B. Thompson (philosopher) |editor-first= Barry |editor-last= John |encyclopedia= International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics |title= agriculture |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=h5jrAgAAQBAJ |access-date= 2014-08-05 |year= 2014 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-1135554033 |page= 8 |quote= [D]ebates [on enclosure] […] laid down many of the basic terms for political debate about private property, and especially property in land.}}</ref>

In arguing against supporters of [[absolute monarchy]], Locke conceptualized property as a natural right that God had not bestowed exclusively on the monarchy. In his [[labor theory of property]], Locke stated that property is a natural result of labor improving upon nature, and thus by labor expenditure the laborer becomes entitled to its produce.<ref name="Property Rights in the History of Economic Thought: From Locke to J.S. Mill">
''Property Rights in the History of Economic Thought: From Locke to J.S. Mill'', by West, Edwin G. 2001. Property Rights: Cooperation, Conflict, and Law, ed. Terry Lee Anderson and Fred S. McChesney, Princeton University Press, 2003, Ch. 1 (pp. 20–42).
</ref> Influenced by the rise of [[mercantilism]], Locke argued that private property was antecedent to and thus independent of government. Locke distinguished between "common property", by which he meant [[common land]], and property in consumer goods and producer-goods. His chief argument for property in land ownership was that it led to improved land management and cultivation over common land.

In the 18th century, during the [[Industrial Revolution]], the moral philosopher and economist [[Adam Smith]] (1723–1790), in contrast to Locke, distinguished between the "right to property" as an acquired right, and natural rights. Smith confined natural rights to "liberty and life". Smith also drew attention to the relationship between employee and employer and identified that property and civil government were dependent upon each other, recognizing that "the state of property must always vary with the form of government". Smith further argued that civil government could not exist without property, as the government's main function was to define and safeguard property ownership.<ref name="Property Rights in the History of Economic Thought: From Locke to J.S. Mill" />

In the 19th century, the economist and philosopher [[Karl Marx]] (1818–1883) provided an influential analysis of the development and history of property formations and their relationship to the technical [[productive forces]] of a given period. Marx's conception of private property has proven influential for many subsequent economic theories and for [[communist]], [[socialist]], and [[anarchist]] political movements, and led to the widespread association of private property—particularly private property in the [[means of production]]—with [[capitalism]].