Property Characteristics
| Property Type | Right of Possession | Right to Use Enjoy/Abuse |
Right to Exclude | Right to Trade/Gift | Unregulated by State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feudal Emphyteusis - a king's right transfer by law/custom only |
 |
|
|
X | X |
| Allodial Possession (Proudhon in ToP) Private Property (Tucker, Rothbard) |
|
|
|
|
|
| Fiat Property (Proudhon in WiP) Decreed Property (Ancaps) |
|
|
|
|
X |
Contrary to many 18th century theorists, there is actually no fundamental difference between what mutualists call "possession" and what anarcho-capitalists call "private property". Pierre Proudhon acknowledged this in his later work:
That possession implies in it the various rights of use, habitation, cultivation, pasture, hunting, and fishing — all the natural rights that Brissot called PROPERTY according to nature; it is to a possession of that sort, but which I had not defined, that I referred in my first Memoir and in my Contradictions. That form of possession is a great step in civilisation. - Proudhon, Theory of Property
The disagreement between mutualists and anarcho-capitalists regarding property is about abandonment criteria, a matter of social norms and local consensus, not property characteristics. Norms favoring current possession, occupation, and use are contrasted with "sticky" property norms allowing absentee ownership and greater latitude for non-use.
