If there was ever a board game that went viral, it’s Monopoly, and it’s a game that has deep roots in politics and economy.

Political economist Henry George.

Back in the late 1800s political economist Henry George wrote and lectured about land rights and the relationship between rent and poverty – a topic still current today. His philosophy held that a wealthy few could squeeze the economy and the cost of living and push those struggling to make ends meet into poverty. He was opposed to tariffs and supported free trade. And he was a major proponent of secret ballot in elections, which did not come about until the 1890s. In 1879 George published “Progress and Poverty”, which was the first popular economics text in the world, selling over 3 million copies. Franklin D Roosevelt referred to Henry George as “one of the really great thinkers produced by our country” and Albert Einstein wrote that “men like Henry George are rare unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form and fervent love of justice. Every line is written as if for our generation. The spreading of these works is a really deserving cause, for our generation especially has many and important things to learn from Henry George.” Helen Keller noted in her writings that “Henry George’s philosophy [is] a rare beauty and power of inspiration, and a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature.”

Elizabeth Magie Phillips’ The Landlords Game.

It is with great inspirational references like these by many prominent members of society that in 1903 Elizabeth Magie Phillips created a game which she hoped could be used as a teaching tool to illustrate Henry George’s single tax theory and how land monopolies negatively impact the economy. The Landlord’s Game was never a great success, although many copies were sold.

In 1936 Monopoly was the Rage of America.

Charles Darrow was a salesman who lost his job following the stock market crash of 1929. In the depression that followed he could not find steady employment. He saw the popularity of The Landlord’s Game among people he knew and decided to redesign the game and market it under the name Monopoly as his personal invention. He sold rights to the game to Parker Brothers in 1935 and the game started to be mass produced at a rate of a million copies per year. It quickly became the best selling board game in America and made Darrow the first game designing millionaire. Adjust for inflation, a million dollars in 1935 is the equivalent of $17.4 million in 2014.

Monopoly was always a strong seller, but did not see much evolution under the ownership of Parker Brothers. In 1991 Parker Brothers was bought by Hasbro and shortly thereafter the game started seeing a multitude of variations. Editions for individual states, cities, schools, companies, movies and more were published with dozens of editions flooding the market every year. A good economist would argue that over saturation of the market is a great way to kill a popular brand, but Hasbro struck a nerve with the pubic. Monopoly was produced to reflect the popular tastes of the time and a hit movie edition was guaranteed to fly off the shelves.

Under Hasbro Monopoly also saw a lot of spin-offs, including card games, computer games and even slot machines. There was a shot lived Monopoly game show. One of the most famous promotions for Monopoly has been the McDonald’s Monopoly Sweepstakes to attract customers by giving them a chance to win prizes. There are also regional, national and world championships for Monopoly where participants earn tens of thousands of dollars for their play.

Around the same time that Parker Brothers started selling Monopoly, Milton Bradley published a redesigned version of The Landlord’s Game under the name of Easy Money. In 1936 Parker Brothers sued Milton Bradley for patent infringement, even though their own version of the game infringed on the patent held by Elizabeth Magie Phillips. Milton Bradley responded by making some basic rule and design changes to the game and marketed it as a “new and improved edition”.

Easy Money never made the same impact as Monopoly, but continued to be a popular game. Ironically, Hasbro purchased Milton Bradley in 1984, finally bringing together the two surviving siblings spun off from The Landlord’s Game.

Brew-Opoly is one of the many esoteric Monopoly variants from Late for the Sky.

In 1984 Late for the Sky Productions started publishing Monopoly-like games under the brand City-in-a-Box and later expanded to include college campus versions and other specialty games that focused on popular lore, fiction, animals and themes.

Make-Your-Own-Opoly puts creativity in the hands of the consumer.

In 1998 TDC Games started publishing Make-Your-Own-Opoly, allowing individuals to design their own one of a kind Monopoly versions.

Today Monopoly continues to be one of the cornerstone blockbuster games in the Hasbro portfolio. Millions of copies are sold every year around the world.

[whohit]2014-11-27 National Games Week Countdown – #2 Monopoly[/whohit]