"The institution of private property" is the general expression for the way in which men in the modern state make use of their own energies and of material wealth within the nation.

Nearly all the total of the things mentioned in the table in Chapter 2, section 4, are owned by private citizens.[1] We live in a regime of private property, and all our economic problems are affected by that fact.

The determination of the exact boundaries of private property makes up a large part of the politico-economic problems which the people in each generation have to solve.

A large share, possibly, in a certain sense, every one of the economic problems that are discussed involve change, limitation, definition, or, more radically, abolition of present laws of property.

Broadly understood, as above, therefore, determination of the nature of private property is _the essential_ economic problem.
Sec.2.