The Globalization of Property Rights: An Anglo and American Frontier Land Paradigm, 1700-1900

Abstract

John Weaver’s fascinating paper, “The Globalization of Property Rights: An Anglo and American Frontier Land Paradigm, 1700-1900" is the first in this series to be a historical account of globalization. The McMaster Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition considers that investigation of the historical antecedents of the current phase of globalization to be important to the understanding of twenty-first century events. In that vein, we have invited historians to join our research group and to educate us about past episodes of global expansion. An important aspect of contemporary globalization is the expansion of property rights, both of the kind John Weaver discusses here, that is, the privatization of land, and of the new, intangible kind of property rights in knowledge, computer software and biodata. Weaver’s detailed, theoretical account of the marking off of property rights in conditions of political and legal uncertainty in frontier societies obliges those of us interested in globalization to think more carefully about the current round of privatization in the new “frontiers” of intangible properties. Thus, we welcome his contribution. The policy of this working paper series, therefore, will be to include stand-alone historical pieces, as we include stand-alone pieces from other disciplines, in the hope that readers will find their contributions useful to their own research.