Life, Liberty and Estate: Locke's Theory of Property

Locke's most original argument concerned property. God gave the earth to humankind in common, he said, so how can anyone rightfully own a particular piece of it? His answer was labor. Every person has 'a property in his own person', and by mixing their labor with something from nature, such as picking acorns or cultivating land, they make it their own. Locke also argued that labor creates most of the value in things, so cultivated land is far more valuable than wild land.

He used 'property' in a broad sense, saying people unite in society to preserve their 'lives, liberties and estates', which he called by the general name property. This theory gave individuals a strong claim against rulers who taxed or seized goods without consent. Later thinkers drew very different conclusions from it: some used it to defend private enterprise, while early socialists argued that if labor creates value, workers deserve its fruits.