If I'd been around in the early part of the last century I'd have been wise to buy shares in MONOPOLY
The history of
Monopoly can be traced back to 1903,
[1][9] when American anti-monopolist
Lizzie Magie created a game called
The Landlord's Game that she hoped would explain the
single-tax theory of
Henry George as laid out in his book
Progress and Poverty. She devised the key features of the game. It was intended as an educational tool to illustrate the negative aspects of concentrating land in private
monopolies.
She took out a patent in 1904.
This shows the game's characteristic features of a square circuit consisting of corner squares (one the starting point) and a series of intervening spaces where players went round and round until the game's goal was reached. The railway stations were hazards, demanding a $5 fine.
Players received money after completing each circuit. This design was different from other board games of the time. It is possible, but not definitely known, that she was inspired by a game called
Zohn Ahl, played by the
Kiowa which had a similar shaped board but different rules, and was described in a book about games in 1898.
[10][11] Her game was self-published beginning in 1906.
[12][13]
Magie created two sets of rules: an anti-monopolist set in which all were rewarded when wealth was created, and a monopolist set in which the goal was to create monopolies and crush opponents.
[14][13]
Several variant board games, based on her concept, were developed from 1906
