Key Arguments

• He formulates the axiom explicitly: 'Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over anything which he has stamped as his own.'
• He distinguishes this from a full definition of property, noting that it does not include 'the right of sale, of exchange, of gift; the right to transform, to alter, to consume, to destroy, to use and abuse, etc.', but insists that the right of increase is a core power on which he will concentrate.
• He claims universal admission: 'It is universally admitted. No one can deny it without denying the facts, without being instantly belied by universal custom.'
• He calls it self‑evident, because property is 'always accompanied (either actually or potentially)' by this fact and 'through this fact, mainly, property manifests, establishes, and asserts itself.'
• He argues that negating the right of increase would destroy property itself: 'its negation involves a contradiction. The right of increase is really an inherent right, so essential a part of property, that, in its absence, property is null and void.'
• He enumerates the different juridico‑economic forms of 'increase': farm‑rent for land, rent for houses and furniture, 'revenue' for life‑investments, 'interest' for money, and 'advantage, gain, profit' in exchange, carefully distinguishing these from 'the wages or legitimate price of labor.'
• He characterizes increase as 'a sort of royal prerogative, of tangible and consumable homage' due solely to 'his nominal and metaphysical occupancy'—his seal on the thing, not any labor performed.
• He stresses that the proprietor's permission to use his thing may be sold, and that 'This sale is really a stellionate and an extortion; but by the legal fiction of the right of property,' it becomes a 'source of profit and value to the proprietor.'
• He concludes with a compressed formula: 'Property is the right of increase; that is, the power to produce without labor,' which he equates with 'to make something from nothing; in short, to create.'

Source Quotes

Property is physically and mathematically impossible. Demonstration Axiom.⁠—Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over anything which he has stamped as his own. This proposition is purely an axiom, because⁠— 1.

This proposition is purely an axiom, because⁠— 1. It is not a definition, since it does not express all that is included in the right of property⁠—the right of sale, of exchange, of gift; the right to transform, to alter, to consume, to destroy, to use and abuse, etc. All these rights are so many different powers of property, which we may consider separately; but which we disregard here, that we may devote all our attention to this single one⁠—the right of increase. 2.

2. It is universally admitted. No one can deny it without denying the facts, without being instantly belied by universal custom. 3.

3. It is self-evident, since property is always accompanied (either actually or potentially) by the fact which this axiom expresses; and through this fact, mainly, property manifests, establishes, and asserts itself. 4.

Finally, its negation involves a contradiction. The right of increase is really an inherent right, so essential a part of property, that, in its absence, property is null and void. Observations.⁠—Increase receives different names according to the thing by which it is yielded: if by land, farm-rent; if by houses and furniture, rent; if by life-investments, revenue; if by money, interest; if by exchange, advantage, gain, profit (three things which must not be confounded with the wages or legitimate price of labor).

The right of increase is really an inherent right, so essential a part of property, that, in its absence, property is null and void. Observations.⁠—Increase receives different names according to the thing by which it is yielded: if by land, farm-rent; if by houses and furniture, rent; if by life-investments, revenue; if by money, interest; if by exchange, advantage, gain, profit (three things which must not be confounded with the wages or legitimate price of labor). Increase⁠—a sort of royal prerogative, of tangible and consumable homage⁠—is due to the proprietor on account of his nominal and metaphysical occupancy.

Observations.⁠—Increase receives different names according to the thing by which it is yielded: if by land, farm-rent; if by houses and furniture, rent; if by life-investments, revenue; if by money, interest; if by exchange, advantage, gain, profit (three things which must not be confounded with the wages or legitimate price of labor). Increase⁠—a sort of royal prerogative, of tangible and consumable homage⁠—is due to the proprietor on account of his nominal and metaphysical occupancy. His seal is set upon the thing; that is enough to prevent anyone else from occupying it without his permission.

Commonly he sells it. This sale is really a stellionate and an extortion; but by the legal fiction of the right of property, this same sale, severely punished, we know not why, in other cases, is a source of profit and value to the proprietor. The amount demanded by the proprietor, in payment for this permission, is expressed in monetary terms by the dividend which the supposed product yields in nature.

These are by no means exaggerations. Property is the right of increase; that is, the power to produce without labor. Now, to produce without labor is to make something from nothing; in short, to create. Surely it is no more difficult to do this than to moralize matter.

Key Concepts

• Axiom.⁠—Property is the Right of Increase claimed by the Proprietor over anything which he has stamped as his own.
• it does not express all that is included in the right of property⁠—the right of sale, of exchange, of gift; the right to transform, to alter, to consume, to destroy, to use and abuse, etc.
• It is universally admitted. No one can deny it without denying the facts, without being instantly belied by universal custom.
• property is always accompanied (either actually or potentially) by the fact which this axiom expresses; and through this fact, mainly, property manifests, establishes, and asserts itself.
• The right of increase is really an inherent right, so essential a part of property, that, in its absence, property is null and void.
• Increase receives different names according to the thing by which it is yielded: if by land, farm-rent; if by houses and furniture, rent; if by life-investments, revenue; if by money, interest; if by exchange, advantage, gain, profit (three things which must not be confounded with the wages or legitimate price of labor).
• Increase⁠—a sort of royal prerogative, of tangible and consumable homage⁠—is due to the proprietor on account of his nominal and metaphysical occupancy.
• This sale is really a stellionate and an extortion; but by the legal fiction of the right of property, this same sale, severely punished, we know not why, in other cases, is a source of profit and value to the proprietor.
• Property is the right of increase; that is, the power to produce without labor. Now, to produce without labor is to make something from nothing; in short, to create.

Context

Beginning of the 'Demonstration' in Chapter IV, where Proudhon fixes a precise juridico‑economic core of property (the droit d’aubaine / right of increase) as the target of his mathematical critique, distinguishing it from legitimate wages.