The most influential early expositors of systematic liberal theory were John Locke and John Stuart Mill. From birth, all are equally endowed with this reason, which is the basis for their decisions to leave the state of nature, to enter into civil and political society, and to act in the community. To Locke and to the liberal theorists who followed him, private property is an essential condition for individual freedom, as well as a principal goal of its exercise. Locke’s theory of property, which has received much attention from commentators, need not detain us beyond a recognition of three elements that are central to liberal citizenship. First is the notion that individuals create property (which Locke defines broadly as ‘Lives, Liberties, and
Estates’ ([1690] 1960: 395)) and gain dominion over it by investing it with their labor; second, the protection of property against public and private invasion is the most important function of law and government. Peter Laslett, describing Locke’s theory of property as ‘incomplete, not a
little confused and inadequate to the problem as it has been analysed since his day,’ has viewed that theory as quite consistent with state-mandated regulation and redistribution, perhaps even nationalization, of private property and wealth.