Understanding Assets, Equity, and Heritage in Economics
Assets, Equity, and Heritage
Definition of Assets and Equity
Material objects and non-material goods that have an economic value are called assets. The set of goods is called equity. Heritage consists of assets (property rights) and liabilities (debts). Heritage is an attribute of personality that is unique and indivisible, universal, and legally recognized.
Formation of Heritage
Heritage is composed of real rights, personal rights, and intellectual property rights.
Property Rights
Property rights create a direct link between a person and a thing. The person is the active subject, and the thing is the object.
Personal Law
Personal law establishes a relationship between two people, where one can require the other to fulfill an obligation. It covers three elements: the creditor (subject asset), the debtor (taxable person), and the object of the obligation.
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual property rights cover literary, artistic, and scientific creations. They can be exploited economically and form part of heritage.
Things as Material Objects with Value
Things are material objects that have value. All things are goods, but not all goods are things.
Classification of Things
Movable and Immovable Things
Things are classified as movable and immovable, expendable and non-expendable, consumable and non-consumable, divisible and indivisible, principal and accessory, and in trade and out of trade.
Movable Things
Movable by nature: Things that can be transported from one place to another by moving themselves or by an external force. There are two types: those that need an external force to move and those that move by themselves (semovientes, like cattle).
Movable by representative character: Public or private instruments representing the acquisition of personal rights.
Immovable Things (Real Estate)
Immovable by nature: Things that are immobilized by themselves, such as land (the solid surface), things incorporated into the soil organically, and everything underground that is not the result of human activity.
Immovable by accession: Accession can be physical or moral.
- Physical accession: Movable things that are immobilized by their adherence to the land (e.g., a building), provided that the adhesion is permanent. Movable things attached to a building temporarily are considered furniture, even if fixed.
- Moral accession: Movable things intentionally placed in a building by its owner without being physically attached, intended for the permanent service of the building.
Immovable by representative character: Public instruments representing the acquisition of real rights over immovable property.
Expendable and Non-Expendable Things
Expendable things: Things where one individual is equivalent to another of the same species and can be replaced by others of the same quality and quantity.
Non-expendable things: Things that cannot be replaced by each other because they have unique features.
Consumable and Non-Consumable Things
Consumable things: Things whose existence ends with the first use.
Non-consumable things: Things that do not cease to exist with the first use, although they may deteriorate over time.
Divisible and Indivisible Things
Divisible things: Things that can be divided into actual portions without being destroyed (e.g., sugar).
Indivisible things: Things that are destroyed when divided or when division makes them uneconomical to use (e.g., a table).
Principal and Accessory Things
Principal things: Things that can exist by themselves.
Accessory things: Things whose nature and existence are determined by something else on which they depend. They have no independent existence.
Fruits and Products
Fruits and products are organic products of a thing, forming a whole with it.
- Fruits: Produced regularly and periodically.
- Products: Not reproduced and separated from the thing from which they came.
Fruits can be natural or civil (industrial).
Things In Trade and Out of Trade
Things in trade: Things that can be disposed of, whether their alienation is prohibited or requires public authorization.
Things out of trade:
- Absolutely inalienable: When their sale is prohibited by law.
- Relatively inalienable: When their sale requires prior authorization.
Property of the State
Public Property
Public property is directly affected by the use of the population. It is inalienable and imprescriptible. Examples include territorial seas, rivers, beaches, lakes, waterways, streets, squares, roads, bridges, and documents of state powers.
Private Property of the State
Private property of the state is owned and operated by the state, similar to how individuals manage their property. Examples include lands within the republic’s boundaries, mines of gold, silver, and precious stones, vacant lands, walls, trains, boats, and things found in the seas or rivers of the republic.
Property of the Church
Property of the church includes temples and sacred objects. They can be disposed of according to the provisions of the Catholic Church. Goods outside Catholic churches can be disposed of according to their statutes.