The Rights of Property

Origin and Development

What is the origin of the rights of property and how it evolved? Why Rights of Property? “In the joint enterprise of making a living, human beings not only potentiate but they also stimulate one another. The power and the stimulus are often combined, just as some foods furnish at the same time nutrition and stimulation to the human body. Sometimes we may distinguish between the two elements. It is so in the case of property. Wealth is power. Property is a stimulant. In order to make this distinction clear, we draw another. We must explain the difference in meaning between wealth and property. This will not be a hard task. Property is ownership, and wealth is the thing owned. Wealth is a thing, property a right to it. Wealth is mine and thine, property mineness and thineness. True, we often confuse the terms, and speak of the thing itself as property; especially do we speak of a body of real estate as a piece of property.”