ABSTRACT
The central themes in John R. Commons's Legal Foundations of Capitalism are the distinction between power and property. He makes two key assertions about property. It is something taken from the state and vested in individuals: "Taxes are not something taken from private property by the sovereign, but property is sovereignty taken collectively from the King by his tenants". Property is a protection of the weak against the strong. Commons traces the evolution of the economic dimensions of property through various stages. Property protected only the physical safety and possession of the owner against violent trespass, theft, and arbitrary taking by government officials. The emergence of modern fee simple property is a matter of evolution in two sets of relations: the relation between those who become owners and their former superiors, and between those who become owners and their former inferiors.
