What was Monopoly's ancestor designed to show?
Elizabeth Magie's 1904 Landlord's Game was meant to illustrate how land monopolies hurt tenants.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Magie, an American writer and inventor, patented The Landlord's Game in 1904. She was a follower of Henry George, who argued that land value should be taxed because its worth comes from the community rather than the owner. The board looped around the edge, with properties to buy, rent to pay and utilities, and she designed it as a demonstration of how land ownership concentrates wealth.
Magie included two sets of rules. Under one, wealth was shared and everybody gained when anyone prospered. Under the other, players aimed to bankrupt each other, a contrast meant to show the harm of monopolies. Copies circulated by hand among college students and Quakers in the early twentieth century, picking up local street names, including those of Atlantic City.
In 1935 Parker Brothers bought a version from Charles Darrow, who had marketed it as his own, and then purchased Magie's patent for $500 to head off disputes. Darrow was publicized as the inventor for decades, and Magie received no royalties. Her role came to light largely through the 1970s legal fight over the Anti-Monopoly game, and historians have since documented the Landlord's Game lineage. The irony is that a game built to criticize monopolies became the best-known monopoly game.