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Describe the different trade relations?
- -Agrarian based economies-few cities
- -Invaders threatening the Frankish lands:France, Germany & Belgium
- -North-African Muslims in Spain 711-Access to the Mediterranean trade aggravated
- -Scandinavian Vikings in Britain
- -Magyars in Central Europe in the 800s
- -The German defeated the Magyars 955
- -German settlements in E-C-E spread 1000s
- -Religious conversions-crusaders 1100s-
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Describe the basic characteristics of Feudalism?
- -Manorial systems, common in the Frankish lands 900s onward
- -Fiefs: heritable lands/property
- -The right to exploit were granted by a county based lord in return for a vassal knight's loyalty, military service, or security.
- -Service and protection contracts, involving transfer of land to local royal officers and great land holders gave increased power
- -The king gave private justice and immunity from royal interference
- -In the bottom of the social ladder was serfom/ land rents paid in labour
Feudal relations:
- THE KING (warrior)
- ↑↓
- Vassal Princes (Barons/Lords)
- ↑↓
- Vassal/landlords: Collecting revenues and serving at wars.
- ↑↓
- The peasant serf (agricultural labour)
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Explain the spread of the feudal system?
- -The hierarchic system of the church: symbolic ceremonies-Obedience
- -Land owned by monasteries, dignitaries or by the churches themselves= Feudal connections: Church -state-Obedience
- -From present day France-->Spain--> Italy--> Germany & England into E-C-E/Russia
- -Fragmented sovereignty-constant wars between small kingdoms/city states
- -Present all over Europe up to the 1400s
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Describe Feudalism in economic thinking?
- Karl Marx:
- -Feudalism: Exploitation of peasants work
- -But a necessary part of the historical development: Slavery-->Feudalism-->Capitalism-->Socialsim-->Communism
- North & Thomas:
- -Feudalism was a specific form of contract relations
- -Work was exchanged for protective and jurisdiction.
- -High land-labour ratio (much land available in relation to the size of labour)-->extensive farming.
- -Insecure borders (lack of security)
- -Changing land rents because of changing property values (population decrease) after the Plauge 1350s
- -Labour dues in kind (obligations-non-monetary exchanges)
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Why feudalism?
- Why not slavery?
- -Monitoring is costly
- -Land was cheap: Labour was available and labour service for the landlord (payment) was measured in days
- Why not rent?
- -Transaction costs in a non-monetary economy (easier to trade labour in an economy with low monetary exchanges)
- -Risk sharing (many people carried the costs of a bad harvests) The manor lord always received his share.
- Why not a commune?
- -Gains from specialization in viloence
- -High costs for military investment (the hierarchic system supplies horses, arms, fortifications)
- -Peasant serfs exploited: Manorialism= labour dues-fixed or adjusted-low market integration
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What happend during 900s-1300s?
- -Population growth (900s-1300s)
- -Decreasing land-labour-ratio (less land/head=land hunger)
- -Malthusian trap: Stagnating productivity, less good nutrition
- -Increasing populations= Declining wages/costs for labour: Higher access to labour and increasing land rents
- -Exposure to threats: wars & deceases (the plauge 1350s-1400)
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Explain what happened during the 14th century?
- Began with overpopulation and trade expansion
- - Famine and the plauge 1350s
- →Population decline→Increased land labour ration→falling rents/husbandry increases=more/better food nutrients→Rising wages→General recovery→population growth 1450s on.
- -Growth of certain cities, shipping, banking and financial services
- -Signs of labour gaining rights, reduced feudal dues---Gradual decline of serfdom
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What happend during the 15th & 16th century Europe?
- -Population growth=Problems to feed all people when the land-labour-ratio decresed
- -60-95% peasants:Manual labour
- -Malthusian trap
- -Falling wages →Rising rents→Landowners strengthened their positions
- -Migration→Increasing trade and specialization
- -Incentives for enclosure: UK wool prices went up.
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Describe the forces against feudalism?
- -Expansion of towns, trade and monetary relations
- -Concentration of power
- -Centralization of political and military authority 1400s to 1600s= Powerful monarchs→taxation and bureaucracy = declining role for the church
- -Improved communications: Fewer isolated manors means more contacts and exchanges
- -Shifting land-labour ratios:Population vs. available land resources
- -Property rights-enclosure:Law making
- -Gradual breakdown- France 1789, Germany 1848, Russia 1917, Eastern Europe late 19th century- 1920s
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