American Elizabeth Magie invented the Landlord’s Game (precursor of the modern Monopoly) in 1904, as a sign of protest against the barons and monopolists of the Gilded Age (a period in the U.S. marked by materialism and corruption). The purpose of the game was: to educate people about how the rich were unfairly profiting off the labour of the commoners.
A progressive woman
She was heavily influenced by the writings of Henry George, a political economist and land reformer. His progressive views on taxes and wealth inequality were imperative in laying the foundation of the Landlord’s Game.
Magie curated two different versions of the game – an anti-monopolist version where wealth created was equally distributed among all the players, and a monopolist version where everyone tried to get as rich as possible while bankrupting others. This duality was her attempt at demonstrating how the first variation is morally superior.
Magie’s game patented
Patented in 1904, the game was a hit among the masses, especially among the Quakers (a group of people who embraced equality and peace, and rejected war) of the Atlantic. But to her dismay, the game designed to educate people about the evils of monopoly ended up doing quite the opposite.
As its popularity gained momentum, people started customising and modifying the rules of the game while drawing the design by hand on fabric or table cloth. One of those people was Charles Darrow. His version had a circular board, and more cut-throat rules. He also added small illustrations of actual streets of the Atlantic city (with their names) and colour-coordinated them – to create the board we know today.
Her game is sidelined
In 1935, Parker Brothers bought the rights to Darrow’s version of the Monopoly and added a portly mascot with a top hat and a cane (rumoured to be modelled around American banker JP Morgan). They also distributed metal tokens with each set inspired by trinkets Darrow had used from his niece’s charm bracelet. While this deal made Darrow a millionaire, Magie’s patent was bought by the brothers for mere $500.
The truth emerges
In 1948, with the death of Elizabeth Magie, the very truth of the origin of Monopoly had nearly died with her, as officially the company still credited Darrow as the inventor of the game. Things changed in 1973, when the Parker Brothers engaged in a legal battle with a professor named Ralph Anspach over the creation of his anti-monopoly game, and accidentally uncovered Magie’s patents.
Even now, with more than a century under its belt, Monopoly is considered the best-selling board game in modern history, and has been translated into 47 languages.
Picture Credit : Google
