Private Property

Private property is the employment, control, ownership, ability to dispose of, and bequeath land, capital, and other forms of property by legal persons and privately owned firms. Private property is distinguishable from public property and collective property, which refers to assets owned by a state, community or government rather than by individuals or a business entity. Private property emerged as the dominant form of property in the means of production and land during the Industrial Revolution in the early 18th century, displacing feudal property, guilds, cottage industry and craft production, which were based on ownership of the tools for production by individual laborers or guilds of craftspeople.

In Marxian economics and socialist politics, there is distinction between "private property" and "personal property". The former is defined as the means of production in reference to private ownership over an economic enterprise based on socialized production and wage labor; the latter is defined as consumer goods or goods produced by an individual. Prior to the 18th century, private property usually referred to land ownership.

The concept of property is not equivalent to that of possession. According to Phillip O'Hara, property and ownership refer to a socially constructed circumstance conferred upon individuals or collective entities by the state, whereas possession is a physical phenomenon.