Property and Freedom, by Richard Pipes.
Vintage Books, A Division of Random House, Inc. June 2000

For a thoughtful history of the evolution of property rights, and their link to the development of economic and political freedoms, check out Pipes' Property and Freedom. The book provides great background on what is still a relevant and unresolved issue in many less developed countries today.

In Property and Freedom, Richard Pipes, a pre-eminent scholar of Russian History, provides his readers a broad historical base for his inquiry, which he describes as, "the relationship of private property to civil and political liberty" (p. 117). We learn that starting as early as the time of the dialogs between Plato and Aristotle, there have been fluctuations in the worth attached by philosophers, theologians, rulers, and the governed, to the ownership of private property. Pipes argues that the contrast between Plato's arguments for communal ownership, and Aristotle's belief that property is ultimately a positive force, is not unlike the stark differences between the history of property in Russia and England.

England
In England, laws of private property were strengthened at the end of the Middle Ages when the former serfs became freemen, earning title to land. Kings' need for cash allowed the people to demand freedoms and reforms in return, resulting in "representatives of the burghers and the shires [who] were routinely summoned to advise on legislation and to vote subsidies" (p. 129). This balancing of needs and wants between the governed and those who governed was what Pipes calls, "a classic illustration of how private wealth restrains public authority" (p. 123). Private ownership of property in England provided the negotiating power with which the people were able to extract freedom of speech, freedom against arbitrary arrest, and freedom from being taxed without common consent.

Russia
Pipes contrasts the Russia he knows so well with the history of English property outlined above. In Russia, Tsars owned all the land and reaped rents and services from it, so that no taxes were necessary. As Pipes explains, "the absence of property in land deprived Russians of all those levers by means of which the English succeeded in limiting the power of their kings" (p. 160).

Some thought was of course given to the impact of private ownership. In 1766, Catherine the Great and the St. Petersburg Free Society sponsored a contest seeking the best response to the question of, "whether the peasant should own the land which he cultivated." The contest winner (a Frenchman) explained his affirmative answer by reasoning that due to the greater motivations of entrepreneurs with ownership rights: "One hundred peasant-proprietors would outproduce two thousand serfs" (p. 194).

Some property rights were established by Russia's Noble Charter almost 20 years later, but only for the noble classes. When political freedom arrived in Russia in 1905-6, it was not due to forces of the people exercising their power of property ownership, but rather the monarchy's attempt to salvage their power in the face of revolution. Their efforts came too late, resulting in a lack of that property rights and freedom in Russia under both the Tsars and the communist regimes.

The principles that Pipes espouses are akin to the ideas about property and poverty alleviation in developing countries expressed by Hernando de Soto in The Mystery of Capital.

Theory and Real Life Combined
While much of Pipe's work comes from analysis of the philosophies of Locke, Marx, Hobbes, Hume, and others, there are real life practical illustrations sprinkled in to the mix in Property and Freedom. The combination of theory and real life examples is a very readable one. Pipes notes that "economic growth will occur if property rights make it worthwhile to undertake socially productive activity" (p.63). He later illustrates this principle with a real life story from the Virginia Company's Jamestown settlement, the first permanent British settlement in North America. Initially, the colony had adopted a communistic principle that nearly brought the colony to starvation. When, instead,
they awarded each member a three-acre plot from which to support
their families, productivity increased tenfold.

While the arguments of Property and Freedom are grounded in history, economics and philosophy, the conclusions have important application in today's world. The principles that Pipes espouses are akin to the ideas about property and poverty alleviation in developing countries expressed by Hernando de Soto in The Mystery of Capital.

About the Author (from Vintage Books)
Richard Pipes, Baird Research Professor of History at Harvard University, is the author of numerous books and essays, including A Concise History of the Russian Revolution (1995) and Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime (1994). In 1981-82 he served as President Reagan's National Security Council adviser on Soviet and East European affairs. He has twice received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Chesham, New Hampshire.

Contributed by William Early, Founder, Global Envision

To read another Global Envision book review about property rights see, Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.

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