Monopoly is arguably one of the most popular board games in modern history. But, the original version, released in 1906, doesn’t look like the version sitting on your shelf at home right now. In fact, it didn’t even have the same name.
A young woman by the name of Elizabeth Magie created the game to show a “practical demonstration of the present system of land-grabbing with all its usual outcomes and consequences.” She was inspired after reading Henry George’s book, Progress and Poverty. The first version of the game was called The Landlord’s Game.
Thomas Forsyth has spent that last 20 years researching the history of The Landlord’s Game. “Elizabeth saw a concentration of the nation’s wealth with a small minority of people and wanted a way to teach people that it not only would grow worse if left alone, but that solutions existed to remedy the problem.” She hoped the game would solve those problems.
As time went on, The Landlord’s Game was played in classrooms to teach them about the economy. Students added new rules and changed the board around, with the name evolving from The Landlord’s Game to Auction Monopoly to finally just Monopoly.
Parker Brothers soon bought the patent and sales for the game exploded. Since then, multiple newer versions of the game have been published.
Forsyth has started to sell replicas of the first-ever Monopoly game, which looks just like Magie’s first release of The Landlord’s Game. “Right now we see history repeating itself with a great concentration of wealth, so it really is a perfect time to revisit a release of the original game after more than 100 years of solitude,” says Forsyth.
