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CHAPTER II 
PROPERTY 
§1 
THE definition of Wealth in the previous chapter restricts 
its meaning to concrete material objects. But economics 
has also to deal with abstract services, utilities, and property 
rights. These, like material wealth, are bought and sold, 
and are, in fact, often regarded as a sort of “immaterial” 
or “‘incorporeal’’ wealth. It is, however, needless as well as 
confusing to include these elements under the general cate- 
gory of wealth. They are not wealth, though they are 
intimately related to wealth. The definition given shows 
that wealth has two attributes: it must be material, and 
it must be owned. Its materiality was the subject of the 
previous chapter; its ownership will be the subject of the 
present chapter. 
But what is meant by owning wealth? We answer: 
to have the right to use it. Such a right is called prep- 
erty, or, more explicitly, a property right. To own a loaf of 
bread, or to have property or proprietorship in it, means 
nothing more nor less than to have the right to eat it, or sell 
it, or otherwise employ it to satisfy one’s desires. To own 
a suit of clothes is to have the exclusive right to wear it. 
To own a carriage is to have the right to drive in it or 
otherwise utilize it as long as it lasts. To own a plot 
of land means to have the right to its use forever. The con- 
cept of property — the “right to use wealth’’ — is more 
fully expressed by the phrase, the “right to the uses of 
wealth.” In this phrase we have to deal with two new 
ideas — rights and uses — each of which needs to be treated 
separately. : 
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