Personally, I have never made it to the end of a single game of Monopoly, despite its subtitle being “The Fast-Dealing Property Trading Game.” The evolution of the boardgame is entrenched in irony.
In the late 1800s, Elizabeth Magie developed a game that would later evolve into Monopoly. Magie called it “The Landlord’s Game” and used it as a tool to teach the concepts of economist Henry George. George proposed a “single tax system” where the only tax that the government collects is on landowners. Unlike other taxes, taxes on land ownership would not create any economic inefficiencies, or situations where resources aren’t used to their greatest potential. George suggested redistributing the income from the single tax to other parts of the economy, like labour and investment, eliminated the need for taxes in these areas. George believed this system would work to reduce inequality as a land value tax would mainly target the wealthy landowners, while keeping tenants protected.
There were two modes of play in the Landlord’s Game: anti-monopolist and monopolist. In the monopolist mode, players aimed to amass all the wealth in the game and by doing so, bankrupting other players out of play. In contrast, the anti-monopolist mode rewards everybody during wealth creation, mirroring the benefits of the single tax policy. It was Magie’s hope that players of the game would conclude that the anti-monopolist structure overall reaped a better outcome for society.
In the early 1900s, economics students began to modify the rules. The monopolist rules became more popular and widespread. Eventually the game was more widely known as “Monopoly.” Soon student knock-offs of the game were springing up everywhere, despite Magie’s patent on the game.
Then enter Charles Darrow. He lost his job during the 1929 stock market crash and ended up working odd jobs during the Great Depression. Shortly after learning about the game, Darrow began work on developing his own version with similar rules but ditching the anti-monopolist mode. He copyrighted the game in in 1933, despite Magie having a patent on the Landlord’s Game since 1904.
Darrow became the first millionaire game-designer. After extraordinary sales during the Christmas of 1934, Darrow sold Monopoly to Parker Brothers and became recognised as the inventor of the game.
What began as a tool to teach the weaknesses of our capitalist system ended up exemplifying capitalist values. Now, Magie’s intentions are lost to history.