The development of exclusive property rights to land in England: An exploratory essay

Abstract In recent years an increasing number of attempts have been made by economists to deal systematically with the subject matter of property rights. These efforts have led to a generalization of the standard theory of production and exchange by consideration of the relationship between ownership rights to scarce resources and economic behavior.1 For the economic historian interested in questions relating to long term economic growth such theoretical developments are proving to be particularly useful tools of analysis.2 The reason is that property rights in all of the factors of production have historically been subject to fundamental change.