By examining the concurrent emergence of the market, the nation state, and the notion of individual private property, the Evolution of the property relation provides insights into the related institutional structures and processes of change based on the "property concept." Such an approach constitutes a comprehensive consideration of property as paradigm, to better understand its institutional manifestations and scientific practices, and to inform any consideration of alternatives. Davis addresses the problem of a static formalist orthodoxy in economics, which is ill-equiped to meet the challenges of institutional change, social unrest, and economic stagnation. This book defines an approach to economics which is centered on the concept of property and explores the historical evolution of the relationship of the individual, private property, and the state, and the distinctive changes wrought by the emergence of the market.--Back cover.