The Surprising Anti-Capitalist Origins of the World's Most Famous Board Game
Discover the surprising true story of Monopoly. Invented by Elizabeth Lizzie Maggie in 1904 as an anti-capitalist warning, her creation was stolen and commercialized.
If you have ever played Monopoly, you know the goal: buy properties, collect rent, and accumulate as much money as possible. But the game today associated with wealth creation was actually born to convey an almost opposite message.
At the beginning of the 20th century, inventor and social activist Elizabeth "Lizzie" Maggie (later Phillips) developed a game called The Landlord's Game. Maggie was influenced by the ideas of economist Henry George, and sought to illustrate through the game how the concentration of land and wealth in the hands of a few can create inequality.
In 1904, she received a patent for the game, which in the following years spread among communities and students in the United States. People copied the boards themselves, modified them, and passed the rules from person to person, creating various versions over the years.
The Theft of an Idea
In the early 1930s, Charles Darrow was exposed to one of the versions that evolved from the game. He created his own version, called it Monopoly, and began selling it. In 1935, Parker Brothers began marketing the game, and Darrow received credit for years as the inventor, growing rich from its success.
That same year, the company also purchased Maggie's patent for just $500, with no royalties. While Monopoly became a global phenomenon, the name of the woman who laid the foundations for the game almost vanished from the story.
This is perhaps the greatest irony: Maggie created a game designed to warn against the concentration of wealth in the few, and ultimately someone else grew rich from the idea she developed.
A Late Recognition
Only decades later, when Parker sued the creator of a game called Anti-Monopoly, her part in the game's development was re-exposed, and she began to receive the place she deserves in its history. But irony was not done playing its role in this show, and the trial that revealed the game was meant to preach against capitalist takeover gave birth to a new law in the US that gave capitalists even more wealth.
So the next time you buy a street, build a hotel, or send someone to jail, remember Elizabeth Maggie, the woman who laid the foundations for one of the world's most successful board games.
