Introduction:

Central to the development of Heinsohn and Steiger's ownership economics is the insight that the historical origins of private ownership and the origins of money were connected. In this Chapter, we further explore Heinsohn and Steiger's theory that property and ownership as legal concepts originated in the process of money creation and are closely associated with the concept of security.

In Heinsohn and Steiger's view, money and property ownership emerged when revolutionaries overturned their feudal rulers and established in the wake of natural disasters a new and free society, based on the distribution of former feudal land holdings to their members. Both the Greek polis and the Roman civitas are considered as the prototypesas symbolized by Romulus’ original land distribution and the creation of the roma quadrata. With each citizen standing on an equal footing and outside the collective safety network of tribe or seigneurie, taking on debt became the necessary means of dealing with bad harvests, variability of yields or other emergencies.