The Institutional Framework

Two forms of property appear, one above the other, related but not the same. At the bottom is the physical property itself, still immobile, still there, still demanding the service of human beings, managers and operators. Related to this is a set of tokens, passing from hand to hand, liquid to a degree, requiring little or no human attention, which attain an actual value in exchange or market price only in part dependent on the underlying property … A first-rate manager would not increase the values of the properties were they to be sold; but he will increase the value of tokens representing that property. A poor management will have the opposite result. (Berle and Means, 1932)1