Ownership means full control of the services that can be derived from a good. This catallactic notion of ownership and property rights is not to be confused with the legal definition of ownership and property rights as stated in the laws of various countries. It was the idea of legislators and courts to define the legal concept of property in such a way as to give to the proprietor full protection by the governmental apparatus of coercion and compulsion, and to prevent anybody from encroaching upon his rights. As far as this purpose was adequately realized, the legal concept of property rights corresponded to the catallactic concept.
Ludwig von Mises (1881 – 1973), Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Scholar’s Edition (1998), first edition published in 1949. “Catallactic” derives from “Catallactics,” a term invented by Richard Whately (1787 – 1863) as an improvement on “Political Economy”; “catallactic” means “pertaining to exchanges” (trade).
1 reply on “Ludwig von Mises”
A problem with the initial assertion is that objects — and hence goods — are mental organizations. If one does not own full services of some good, but only partial services, then one may be said to own full services of some good contained by and participating in the first good considered.
I carefully discussed the concept of ownership in a ‘blog entry.