The board game 'Monopoly' was invented by a Quaker, Elizabeth Magie-Phillips in 1903, as a warning against the evils of land speculation and how a community can lose its heart when badly regulated markets allow monopolies to take over.
She was a follower of Henry George, a radical economist of the time. who developed his theories about the benefit of a single tax on land to effect the redistribution of wealth while working as a journalist in 19th century San Francisco. There he witnessed the suffering of bonded immigrant Chinese labour, the land grabbing of the railroads and the injustice of unearned income linked to land speculation and landlordism. Elizabeth's original game had properties called Beggarman's Court, Lonely Lane, Easy Street, and if you trespassed on Lord Blueblood's estate, you went to prison. In another corner was a Poorhouse, and where the modern version has stations and utilities there were cornfields, farmlands, and forest. Income for basic goods could be collected on squares marked 'absolute necessity'. Andrew Simms, who discloses this in his recent book Tescopoly (a treatise against the monopolies that have
caused the demise of thousands of small shops in our town centres), says that 'Before being swiped by a sharp sales rep during the Great Depression and sold as his own idea to a games manufacturer, the game acquired folk status among Quaker communities. Many developed their own variations of the rules and street names, but all the early players understood the game's true purpose.' Something to think over as you settle down to a family session of Monopoly this holiday: perhaps you could enjoy creating your own 21st century version.