The course of history always involves a careful study of the structure of society in the Middle Ages. At the same time, special attention is paid to the concept of "feudal rent", denoting such a surplus product, which was typical for peasants who were considered dependent on some feudal lord. The owner of the land could appropriate a certain part of the income. Feudal rent was an economic form of embodiment of feudal rights, in particular, it reflected the possibilities of ownership. Rent was considered an important economic instrument, which in many respects shaped not only monetary, but also other relations in society, and also influenced the hierarchical position of the owner. Feudal rent existed in various forms in different countries - both European and Asian.
What is it about?
Currently, history considers feudal rent as a complex concept, within which three different branches are distinguished. Corvee is a labor rent, the quitrent involved in-kind payments in products, and payment in cash was also in use. Features of each of the branches have changed over time and changerelationships in society. In different countries, these processes took place with some differences.
Feudalism as an object of study of economic science
From an economic point of view, the very essence of feudalism is the production of rent. To do this, the peasants were forced to work, and the interaction between the owner and the worker was non-economic. The peasants who were in personal dependence or forced to work on foreign land participated in this. Corvee is one of the formats of such interaction, which involved working out the right to use the land resource.
Working rent, food, financial improved over time. When feudalism reached its advanced stage, dependent peasants worked on the patrimony, and the process was accompanied by the appropriation of the labor of workers by the owner of the land. A community of peasants was called a patrimony. The era of feudalism - a time when the community was dependent on the owner, and the peasants themselves were serfs (or an alternative term was used that existed in the area and reflected the laws in force).
Dedicated to terminology
Rent is a word that comes from the German language, but its roots are in Latin. This word is used to denote such a profitable component that the owner of capital, some land plot or property regularly received. At the same time, progressive feudal rent (like other types of rent) assumes that the recipient of the benefit does not conduct entrepreneurial activities, but only owns an object that serves as a source of income.
Withinfeudalism, rent mainly existed in the form of dues and corvee.
Feudal labor rent: corvée
With this form of management, land plots were divided into master's shares and peasant's. The second category was intended for plowing. In Europe, it was two or even three times more than the master's share. This allotment was analogous to modern wages, but in kind. At the same time, feudal rent was collected in the form of labor: the peasants had to work on the master's domain, using their own livestock, equipment, time and labor. The feudal courtyards also participated in the process of cultivating the land, but they were assigned minimal tasks for organizing the working process. The corvee assumed the allocation of a certain period (a certain number of days) when the peasants should make every effort to cultivate the master's plot of land. This task was paramount.
The peasant was little interested in the possibility of improving the work process as part of the fulfillment of obligations to the landowner, and the quality of work was also at a rather low level. But for themselves, people tried to work with all their might. In many respects, it was this that caused the transition to a new form of interaction - quitrent in kind. Instead of working off the peasants, the landowners considered it necessary to receive food.
Requisition to replace corvée
Since the economic system adopted in the early days showed low efficiency, gradually it was replaced by a new feudal rent and its forms. In the 15th century, as can be seen from historical sources, there already existedthe concept of dues, and according to this logic, entire villages were transferred to the tenant, and the owner of these territories received a good reward. The quitrent allowed for greater economic returns, as arable land was completely controlled by peasants who were dependent on the owner of the territories.
There was such a feudal rent in Ancient Russia, in European states, and a certain form of it is observed in a relatively short period of medieval Asian states. The production culture during this period grew, more efficient, effective methods and tools began to be used, since the peasants were interested in obtaining the maximum yield from the plots of land transferred to them. The manufacturer could set its own rules in the territory entrusted to it, which led to the improvement of work processes.
Products instead of mining
When, within the framework of the history of economics in the school, university curriculum, they analyze what forms of feudal rent existed, they necessarily pay attention to the following point: food rent, despite a more advanced approach to economic relations, also supported the dominance of subsistence farming. A distinctive feature of the new version of the relationship was greater opportunities than before for the process of development, improvement, productivity growth. At the same time, the rent in products made the division of the peasantry into layers more obvious.
At the same time, activeurban settlements developed, along with them - monetary relations. This provoked a further improvement in the relationship between landowners and those who directly worked on the plots. Grocery rent passed into feudal money rent. This form of interaction is also considered a quitrent, but has a slightly different expression than when paying for the use of a site with products removed from this site.
Developed feudalism: a step forward
This period for economic relations in society, especially in European countries, has become a stage of quite significant production progress that has affected a variety of applied areas. The tendencies of the division of labor intensified in society, specializations became deeper, at the same time, labor productivity increased markedly. This also affected agriculture and handicrafts. This development laid a solid foundation for the development of commodity production. And this, in turn, made it possible for the artisans to exist separately from the peasants cultivating the land. Cities and villages were finally divided into two types of life, life, rules, features of work.
Mostly during this period, cities were built at points that seemed promising as trading areas. The area had to be convenient for the sale of handicraft goods in the first place, as well as for the supply of raw materials, which were needed by small manufacturing enterprises of the Middle Ages. In fact, cities were built at the crossroads of trade routes. Gradually populatedpoints grew and competition began between the inhabitants. It was especially pronounced at the level of the strata of the population - urban residents and feudal lords equally wanted to control the management of the city, which led to the creation of a powerful communal movement. The communes that appeared during this period in many European cities were able to get rid of serfdom. At the same time, many ordinary people also got rid of feudal oppression - at least the most severe forms of its manifestation. In fact, in the cities such concepts as quitrent, corvée have become the past. Some localities have also negotiated specific privileges for themselves due to their particularly advantageous position.
Shops as a logical development of craft and trade relations
The development of an urban lifestyle and the acquisition of a certain degree of independence laid the foundations of the guild system. This is also considered a feudal organization, but peculiar only to artisans in cities. The workshops were such associations that included people engaged in the same business or several related areas. Such an association protected itself from alien craftsmen and regulated the rules of internal competition. For the first time workshops appeared in the eleventh century, the pioneers were the states of Central Europe - Germany, France, England. Over time, the system has developed more, which is most noticeable in the arrangement of cities in the fourteenth century, when almost all countries of Western Europe established this image of the organization of handicrafts.
The workshop created a local market, monopolizedhim and dictated the conditions for the manufacture, sale of goods. The association established what sizes to produce goods, what to make them from, how to create them. In many settlements, the workshop supplied individual artisans with products, organized joint storage. At the same time, the first mutual aid funds appeared, which could only be accessed by members of one or another workshop.
Ancient Russia: has its own characteristics
That part of the territory where modern Russia is located, in former times developed, although in a similar way to European countries, but still had certain characteristic differences. They were most pronounced in the period from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries, but each of the stages had its own specificity - to a greater or lesser extent, distinguishing features of the feudal organization of the state in comparison with its neighbors.
During the period of early feudalism on the territory of modern Russia, land ownership was just beginning to form. This happened at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries. At that time, the country was called Kievan Rus. From the thirteenth century, an era of fragmentation began, when the boyar, princely estates opened up, advanced, developed, and received a high level of independence. At the same time, the population faced the yoke of the Golden Horde, which had a strong influence on the development of the state, turning the course of history in many respects, somewhat throwing it back.
What's next?
Perceptible changes in the Russian lands occurred during the period of late feudalism, starting from the endfifteenth century. Estates are becoming a thing of the past, instead of them estates are being formed. The state is losing fragmentation, the regions are united under a strong central government that dictates rules to all parts of the country. It was at this moment that the peasantry was finally enslaved, as evidenced by historical sources. The most significant and reliable is the collection "Cathedral Code" dated 1649. At the same time, a single state market began to form and the foundations of manufactories were laid.
The Russian path has many tangible differences from the Western European one. For example, agriculture, being part of market relations, did not gain independence, but the reverse process took place: serfdom was formed firmly, strongly and for a long time.
Causes and consequences
It is believed that the features characteristic of the Russian feudal social system were largely provoked by the fact that nothing similar to the European price revolution happened. In the West, this was the reason why feudal power weakened, but in Russia it was still strong for a long time, and the feudal lords became active participants in trade relations. This allowed them to expand and strengthen the corvee, to receive more benefits from their land from the owned peasants.
The Times of Troubles were also of considerable importance, which led to the fact that the state met the seventeenth century in a state of economic crisis - what can I say, real devastation. For several years nowmost of the regions inhabited by Russian peoples were plagued by crop failures, which provoked a large-scale famine. The peasants en masse enrolled in bondage letters, hoping thereby to provide themselves with at least some opportunity to survive, which led to a huge number of serfs. The process was finally completed in 1649 with the publication of the aforementioned collection of laws.
Summing up: feudal rent as a period of social development
Feudal rent was a very important element of the medieval social system of European, Asian powers. She played a role in the economic aspect of society and largely controlled the processes in society. At the same time, the producer created a product that was appropriated in one form or another by the owner of the land, and the rent assumed that the land was used separately, in ownership - this is a parallel concept. That is, property became a title, on the basis of which it was possible to make a good profit in the form of peasant labor, products taken from the plot, or money received for harvested crops. Feudal rent attracted particular attention of Karl Marx, who repeatedly pointed out in his works that the appropriation of rent is a method of realizing landed property.
Feudalism was accompanied by surplus labor, a product that the owner simply appropriated for himself. Coercion was organized by non-economic tools, especially when it came to peasants who were in personal dependence. Often, in addition to the surplus productthe owner also took away the product that the peasants produced for themselves and which they desperately needed. The exploitative relations characteristic of the Middle Ages are embodied in the very idea of feudal rent, and at the same time in the instruments through which it was implemented.
