One of the seminal concepts in history is Property, and the most influential expounder of that concept is John Locke. His conception of property, and the rights it bestows on individual citizens, became central to 18th century British and American law ― a tradition that spread widely and endures.
In what we refer to as his Second Treatise of Government, Locke sought to explain how something rightfully becomes a person’s possession. Starting from the premise that individuals own their own person and labor, he argued that they therefore own their labor’s output. In order to survive, they invest their “work and pain,” their “human industry,” to augment what exists in nature and create something valuable. Because their lives require such action, that action deserves protection.
For example, the farmer who produces a bushel of wheat should own it, by virtue of having produced it. His ownership grants him legal recognition of the wheat’s “use and disposal” (as we phrase it), to do with as he pleases, including eat it, save it, trash it, or trade it ― say for clothes stitched by a neighbor (thereby ceding ownership of the wheat and gaining ownership of the clothes). This same principle applies to every human product and service, whether a book written by one person or a structure built by one thousand, with every individual’s contribution recognized.
Translating his words into ours, we could say that production results in property. Really, they are aspects of the same phenomenon, the intersection of the economic and legal. Twins, even, who were separated at birth.
Or, to paraphrase Descartes, a near contemporary of Locke: “We produce therefore we own.”
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