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ancient hunter-gatherer bands were still more egalitarian than any subsequent human society, because they had very little property. Property is a prerequisite for long-term inequality. ... Following the Agricultural Revolution, property multiplied and with it inequality. As humans gained ownership of land, animals, plants and tools, rigid hierarchical societies emerged, in which small elites monopolised most wealth and power for generation after generation.

But how do assets become capital? How does the invisible web get woven? Sometimes, it's a top-down affair. Perhaps the first recognisably modern property registry was in Napoleonic France. Napoleon needed to tax things to fund his incessant wars, and property was a good target for taxation. So he decreed that all French properties would be carefully mapped and their ownership would be registered. Such property map is called a 'cadastre', and Napoleon proudly proclaimed that 'a good cadastre of the parcels will be the complement of my civil code'. After conquering Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium, Napoleon introduced cadastral maps there, as well. In the mid-1800s,