define ownership in Steinbeck term?

Steinbeck traces what he sees as the sorry history of California, fraught with indignity and oppression. Americans took the land from the Mexicans, placed Asian workers into virtual slavery, and finally condemned the Okies to build shantytowns. Ownership belonged to a handful of old white men profiting off the backs of indentured laborers. Yet Steinbeck predicts that the conclusion of this history will be the overthrow of the capitalist owner class. To some extent, he relies on Marxist-Leninist predictions that capitalist imperialism creates its demise through its own success. Eventually, the accumulation of wealth in too few hands will deprive the population to such a degree that the people will have no choice but to revolt.