Feudalism: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:33, 29 November 2020

Feudalism was the dominant mode of production in Europe between the 9th and 15th century. The feudal mode of production is characterised by the dominance of agrarian production by the peasants whose surplus labour was exploited by the feudal lords in the form of rents,labour duties, taxes and so on. The feudal production relations constituted what Perry Anserson calls "an organic unity of economy and polity" in the form of parcellised sovereignties, meaning that the feudal lords as private owners enjoyed their own land and other means of production as well as their own armies, courts, and laws [see, Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (London: Verso, 1974), p. 19, quoted in Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Origih of Capitalism: A Longer View (London: Verso, 2017), p. 44.]

In England, however, starting from the 16th century, a process began to emerge which marx examines in capital volume one under the name of primitive accumulation. The exact reasons are still disputed among marxist historians (see Brenner debate), but eventually the feudal production relations in the English countryside gave way to capitalist production relations by the gradual expropriation of the peasants from land, which in turn transformed the English towns by the inflow of the expropriated peasants who were now the proletarians compelled to sell their labour power as a commodity on a large scale. This two-fold transformation of the production relations in the countryside and the towns gave rise to capitalism.

Marxist analysis

Material conditions

Economic policies

Class struggle

Two major classes existed in feudal society: the nobility and the serfs. Nobles became part of their class by birth, and were able to amass generational wealth by exploiting the surplus labour of the serfs. Nobles were granted land by the monarch and in exchange agreed to participate in their wars and obey their orders. The people that lived on this land would also become the lord's property.

In exchange for letting them use the lord's land, serfs would have to surrender part of their harvest or provide free labour to the lord.

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-'''Feudalism''' was the dominant [[mode of production]] in much of Europe between the 9th and 15th century. It lived on longer in various parts of the world, for example in Tsarist Russia until the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, or in China until the [[War of Liberation]] of 1949.
+'''Feudalism''' was the dominant [[mode of production]] in Europe between the 9th and 15th century. The feudal mode of production is characterised by the dominance of agrarian production by the peasants whose surplus labour was exploited by the feudal lords in the form of rents,labour duties, taxes and so on. The feudal production relations constituted what Perry Anserson calls "an organic unity of economy and polity" in the form of parcellised sovereignties, meaning that the feudal lords as private owners enjoyed their own land and other means of production as well as their own armies, courts, and laws [see, Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (London: Verso, 1974), p. 19, quoted in Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Origih of Capitalism: A Longer View (London: Verso, 2017), p. 44.]
-Feudalism is characterised by the means of production belonging to the nobles, a social class whose members are
+In England, however, starting from the 16th century, a process began to emerge which marx examines in capital volume one under the name of primitive accumulation. The exact reasons are still disputed among marxist historians (see Brenner debate), but eventually the feudal production relations in the English countryside gave way to capitalist production relations by the gradual expropriation of the peasants from land, which in turn transformed the English towns by the inflow of the expropriated peasants who were now the proletarians compelled to sell their labour power as a commodity on a large scale. This two-fold transformation of the production relations in the countryside and the towns gave rise to capitalism.
-Eventually, the contradictions with the growing bourgeoisie reached their highest degree and wars erupted so that capitalism, a mode of production working in the interest of the bourgeoisie, could be established.
 == Marxist analysis ==
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 === Class struggle ===
-Two major classes existed in feudal society: the nobility and the serfs. Nobles became part of their class by birth, and were able to amass generational wealth by exploiting the surplus value of the serfs. Nobles were granted land by the monarch and in exchange agreed to participate in their wars and obey their orders. The people that lived on this land would also become the lord's property.
+Two major classes existed in feudal society: the nobility and the serfs. Nobles became part of their class by birth, and were able to amass generational wealth by exploiting the surplus labour of the serfs. Nobles were granted land by the monarch and in exchange agreed to participate in their wars and obey their orders. The people that lived on this land would also become the lord's property.
 In exchange for letting them use the lord's land, serfs would have to surrender part of their harvest or provide free labour to the lord.