Long before families argued over who got to be the top hat, a woman named Elizabeth Magie created a board game with a revolutionary design—and an even more revolutionary purpose.

In 1903, Magie patented The Landlord's Game, featuring a circular board that players traversed while buying properties and paying rent. Sound familiar? It should. This game would eventually evolve into the Monopoly we know today.

A Game With Two Faces

Magie designed her circular creation with dual rule sets. The "Prosperity" rules rewarded all players when wealth was created. The "Monopolist" rules? Those let one player crush everyone else into poverty.

Her point was simple: she wanted players to see how monopolies destroy economies. The game was propaganda for Georgism, an economic philosophy advocating that land value should belong to the community, not individual owners.

From Circle to Square

The circular board didn't survive the game's evolution. As homemade versions spread through Quaker communities and college campuses in the early 1900s, players began drawing their own boards. The square design emerged organically—it was simply easier to draw and fit better on tables.

By the time Charles Darrow encountered the game in the 1930s, the square format had become standard. Darrow made his own version, sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935, and became a millionaire. He's often credited as Monopoly's inventor.

Elizabeth Magie? She sold her patent to Parker Brothers for $500. No royalties.

The Irony Writes Itself

A game designed to expose the evils of monopolies became one of the most monopolistic success stories in toy history:

Parker Brothers aggressively bought up competing versions
The company trademarked elements that had existed in folk versions for decades
One man got rich while the woman inventor got almost nothing

Magie's circular board represented her belief in the cyclical nature of economics—what goes around comes around. The square board that replaced it? Perhaps more fitting for a game about cornering markets and crushing opponents.

Lost to History

For decades, the Darrow origin story dominated. It wasn't until economics professor Ralph Anspach tried to create a game called "Anti-Monopoly" in the 1970s that the true history emerged. Parker Brothers sued him, and his legal research uncovered Magie's forgotten contribution.

Today, you can find reproductions of The Landlord's Game with its original circular design. Playing it feels strange—familiar mechanics in an unfamiliar shape, carrying a message that Monopoly long ago abandoned.

The game that taught generations to love crushing their opponents was born from a woman's hope that we'd learn to share.

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