Without property rights and civil rights, little motivates the inventor or businessman to create and produce beyond his immediate need. (1)
Throughout most of human history, most people have been unable to produce much beyond what is necessary for survival. When excess wealth has been produced at various times and places, the wealth always becomes concentrated in the hands of a few powerful people, leaving well over ninety percent of the population at bare subsistence living. Only within the past two or three centuries has life beyond the basic necessities become a reality for the vast majority of people in many countries. That prosperity is spreading unevenly to other nations. What changed?
Ancient World
The one, truly significant example of property rights budding in the ancient world, was Greek Civilization during the middle part of the first century B.C.E. Land was divided into small plots, decisions were made through democratic processes, and there was a highly egalitarian spirit among Greek citizens. Property rights were respected and institutionalized, but property primarily consisted of land. The population eventually grew to a point where the number of people exceeded the land to support them. The only option was to annex more land, but the Greek culture did not have conscription. They could not form conquering armies without utterly transforming their culture's very nature, and that is precisely what happened.
No other civilization, including Rome, ever approximated the kind of respect for property and civil rights the Greeks shared during those few centuries. William Bernstein notes that populist movements emerged in places here and there but never really took root. He points to the sabbath and Jubilee codes of the Old Testament as an exceptional vision of an egalitarian society regarding individual and civil rights but rightly notes that there is no evidence that Israel ever abided by these codes. (2)
European Middle Ages
With the collapse of the Roman Empire in the mid-first century, Europe dissolved into a myriad of feudal estates. Life became very violent and dangerous. People gathered in communities and gave their allegiance to a lord in return for protection. The only unifying institution across Europe was the Church. The Church technically owned the land, and the feudal lord ruled a region on behalf of the Church. These lords eventually formed alliances with other lords installing regional rulers or kings.
Two factors acted as a check on the power of Kings and Queens. One was competition. If a King or Queen became too oppressive for the aristocracy, they might unite in opposition or form alliances with the King's or Queen's enemies. Second was the Church. The Church was the de facto bank of the time. Oppose the Church, and you might find yourself high and dry in a time of financial need. This is not to mention the power of the Church to excommunicate and inflict other punishments on rulers. Of course, the Church could also employ these measures against barons who rebelled against a ruler the Church favored.
Magna Carta
Monarchs were required to pay an annual fee to the Church for the privilege of ruling. King John of England rebelled against this idea but finally acceded after being excommunicated by the Pope. Shortly after, he embarked on a disastrous military campaign to take Normandy and ran out of funds. John engaged in various injustices to collect the funds he needed from his subjects. The barons united against him, and John quickly faced a dilemma. He was hardly in the good graces of the Pope, and his barons were united against him. He was forced to make a deal.
The barons drew up a list of demands called the Magna Carta and forced the King to acquiesce. The Magna Carta introduced such ideas as due process, trial by a jury, and taxation only with representation. Most notably, it made the King and the government subject not only to civil law (legislated law) but common law or being governed by time-honored traditions for ordering human affairs. This significantly limited the King's ability to change the law arbitrarily.
The Magna Carta did not come to full flower for at least another five hundred years. Kings resisted and challenged it at every turn, but the Great Charter prevailed over time. Possibly contributing to its victory was the Plague in the middle of the fourteenth century. Approximately a third of Europe died in the Plague. The effect in England was that many aristocrats were left without sufficient labor to maintain their estates. The price of labor soared. Attempts to freeze wages and bind peasants to the estates failed. Many peasants prospered, and some assumed control over estates abandoned by the wealthy either because of death or bankruptcy. The Plague increased the number of people with an economic stake in society across Europe but especially in England. A more widely shared economic stake also meant a more widely shared determination to protect that stake.
(1) William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. 52.
(2) Ibid, 56.
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