The Landlords Game : The Hijacked History of Monopoly

More than 3 decades before Parker Bros published what would become the world’s most popular board game, a young female activist, engineer and actress named Lizzie Magie was busy inventing it.  

Born in 1866 in Illinois, Lizzie Magie worked as a news reporter, an engineer, an inventor, a poet and even a stage actress. She invented a process which improved typewriting processes and successfully filed a patent, practically unheard of for a woman in those times.  

A Georgist from an early age, Magie believed governments should collect tax based on landownership and structured around the size, location, and function of the land. Surplus taxes could be distributed to citizens on the lowest socioeconomic rung.  

Magie campaigned for women's rights and inclusion in business. She invented her first board game – The Landlord’s Game – circa 1903 and received a patent in 1904. The game was a damning demonstration of the ill effects of monopolising land, an aggrieved anti-capitalist stance.

The Landlords Game had two settings or ways to play. In the first, titled Monopoly, the goal is to gather as much money and property as possible while squeezing your opponents out of money and out of the game.

The other setting, Prosperity, involved creating products and services, sharing wealth, and interacting with other players for the greater good. Magie’s idea was to propose both games and see which one was preferred, hoping to provide insight into public policies and injustice.

In 1930, a heater salesman called Charles Darrow claimed he invented a new game in his Philadelphia basement, and in 1934, Parker Bros bought the rights from him and published Monopoly. Parker Bros was already busy 'inventing' its own identical version called ‘Fortune’.

Around the same time, another identical game was ‘invented’ and published under the name The Fascinating Game of Finance. It enjoyed moderate success. When Parker Bros were petitioned by her family, they offered Magie a mere $500 recompense, recognising her patent posthumously.

Lizzie Magie was a feminist inventor whose board game invention was stolen and sold off by a man. She wasn’t afraid to speak out about the injustices she saw around her. Charles Darrow invented nothing yet went on to become the first billionaire board game designer in history.

The landlords game was a reflection of the real-life struggles of the underclass and the search for justice and equity for inventor Lizzie Magie.

That Darrow is still widely credited with her work simply highlights the very injustice she campaigned against all her life.