Duty is a duty of a citizen enshrined in law to perform socially useful work. Previously, the duty was performed by peasants serving the feudal lord. It consisted either in the payment of money or products, or in the performance of work on the lands of the feudal lord (landlord). Despite the fact that such economic relations have long sunk into oblivion, the term retains its meaning and is used today. How has its meaning changed?
Duties of peasants
Earlier, all the lands, both in Russia and in Europe, were divided between strong landowners - feudal lords. There were practically no private lands on which one family would work, and at the same time, ordinary people could live only at the expense of the harvest received by their labor. Therefore, the peasants had to take land in a kind of lease and pay for it. Money used to be of little importance, and ordinary people simply could not have other material values, such as expensive jewelry or elegant dishes. arosequestion: how to pay for the land? This is how the duty appeared.
This concept was very broad. As payment for the land, the feudal lord could ask for any work on his land or payment for any products grown on his territories. There were two types of duties in Russia - quitrent and corvée. Payments with food or money were called quitrent, corvee - working off by one's own labor. For the peasants, it was difficult to bear both of these duties. This eventually led to the restriction of the rights of the feudal lord to establish the terms of corvée and the form of dues, and then completely became the reason for the abolition of the practice of performing duties.
Development
But before the conscription was abolished, it changed its form. Natural (that is, paid by the produced products) quitrent was not profitable for both the peasant and the landowner. The peasant hardly received a harvest sufficient to feed himself and his family - after all, there was no fertilizer, no equipment, no quality seeds and seedlings. To allocate a part to the landowner almost always meant dooming oneself and relatives to starvation. What if there is a crop failure or a drought? Corvee (that is, work on the lands of the landowner) did not become a way out of this situation. The peasant, forced part of his time to work not on his plot, but on the landowner's, did not really try to take care of the fields of the feudal lord. While he worked out the duty on the land of the feudal lord, his own plot could fall into decay, which again threatened to starve the whole family. Yes, and the feudal lord was often not satisfied with the quality of the products received in the form of a duty orthe work done by the peasant.
I had to admit that such a duty is an outdated relic of the past and something needs to be changed. A rather simple and convenient solution was found for everyone - to pay for the land with money. This was beneficial to the feudal lord, since with the proceeds he could purchase any product he needed. And for the peasant, over time, this approach became more convenient - commodity-money relations became more developed, trade and markets appeared.
Today
Today, conscription is primarily the duty of citizens to the state. Feudal relations have long ceased to exist, and the term has acquired a new meaning. Most often, speaking about this in our days, they mean military conscription. This is a practice that exists in many countries around the world. Upon reaching a certain age, men (and sometimes women) become liable for military service. This means that they are obliged to carry out military or alternative civilian service for a certain period of time in peacetime and to defend their homeland in case of war.
