The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

408 THE FREEMAN Julyhave been: the vacation, the newcar, the shares of IBM, and silencefrom "the little woman" whowants to sell out. This is the lawof survival in the free market.May the best (most efficient) manwin.Ownership Contingent on Right UseDuring the English Reformationthe problem of the j ustificationof ownership came to a headwith the confiscation of the propertyof the monasteries. "TheReformation theorists," writesRichard Schlatter, "failed to solvetheir first great problem. Theywere not able to work out a theorywhich would justify large-scaleconfiscation and at the same timemesh with their other ideas aboutthe nature of private ownershipand its rights. For a consistenttheory they substituted an emotionalattack."1:~ They attackedclerics for their alleged misuse ofwealth. But Sir Thomas More, thegreat Roman Catholic layman, answeredthis argument in A Supplicationof Souls. If this is a validpremise for expropriation, hewrote, then there will be no end ofexpropriation. The King may useit against the church, but then thepeople will use it against the merchants(who bought the land fromthe King). Thus, concludes Schlatter,"The theorists of the Reformationcould-not answer More's' argumentswithout admitting the principlethat all ownership was contingentupon right use. But noproperty owner was willing togrant that that principle shouldbe enforced by any authority inthis world. The theoretical problemwas left unsolved."14Economic vs. Legal ControlThe solution to this theoreticalproblem is found in the analysis ofthe operation of the free market.Yes, ownership does depend, economically,on proper use of resources.The legal title, however,does not rest on economic foundationsbut on historical or formallegal principles. Jt is the magnificentfusion of the right of freelegal ownership. and cost-bearingeconomic control of resourceswhich the free-market commonwealthprovides that overcomes thetheoretical dilemma of medievalproperty theory. Laws against theconfiscation of private propertyinsure the smooth operation of thefree market, and this in turn producesa system of economic organizationwhich requires each ownerof property to assume the costs associatedwith the control of property.Mises summarizes it quitewell:Private property is a human device.It is not sacred. It came intoexistence in early ages of history,