The question is raised in many minds: If private property is not an
absolute right, what shall be its limits? What changes should be made
in it? These questions put the greatest economico-political problem of
our day, one that contains within it, indeed, many minor problems. A
number of these will receive attention in the following pages.

§ 9. #The monetary economy#. So greatly does the use of money
facilitate the transfer, buying, and selling of private property and
so closely are property and pecuniary trade connected in practice and
in the thoughts of men, that every radical proposal to abolish private
property has included a plan to do away with money also. But money and
private property are not essentially and logically bound up together,
for a certain measure of private property always has been found where
money was little or not at all used. True, if there were absolutely no
private property, there would be little use for money, altho it might
still be used as a form of counter by the communistic state. We have
already seen[5] how a monetary unit comes into use, and we shall treat
more fully of the nature of money in later chapters. We may note here
merely that the use of money is an outstanding feature of the present
economic system and gives rise to many of the problems of political
economy.

§ 10. #The competitive system#. The existing system is likewise
characterized by competition[6] in the buying and selling of wealth
and of the usances and services of economic agents. By competition we
mean here the condition of political freedom on the part of each man
to trade his property (goods, uses, or services) as he chooses, and
this combined with the disposition on his part to get what he
values most highly for himself and his family. Whenever any one else
(official or citizen) forbids and prevents a man from getting all he