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”, which denotes a surplus product that was characteristic of peasants who were considered dependent on a certain 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 possession. Rent was considered an important economic tool, which in many respects formed not only monetary, but also other relations in society, and also influenced the hierarchical position of the owner. In various forms, feudal rent existed in different countries - both European and Asian.
What is it about?
Currently, history considers feudal rents as a complex concept, within which three different branches are distinguished. Barschina is a developmental rent, a quitrent assumed in-kind payments by products, and money was also in use. The characteristics of each of the branches changed over time and the change in relationships in society. In different countries, these processes occurred 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. For this, peasants were forced to work, and the interaction of the owner and the worker was non-economic. Participated in this peasants who were in personal dependence or forced to work on a foreign land. Barschina is one of the formats for such interaction, which involved the development of the right to use the land resource.
Working rent, product, financial over time improved. When feudalism reached a developed stage, the peasants who were dependent worked on the patrimony, and the process was accompanied by the appropriation by the landowner of the labor of workers. Patrimony was called the community of peasants. The era of feudalism is the time when the community was dependent on the owner, and the peasants themselves were serfs (or an alternative term was used that existed in this area and reflected the current laws).
Terminology Dedicated
Rent is a word that came from the German language, but its roots are in Latin. With this word, it is customary to denote such a revenue component that the owner of the capital, a certain land plot or property regularly received. At the same time, progressive feudal rent (like other types of rent) assumes that the beneficiary does not conduct entrepreneurial activity, but only owns an object that serves as a source of income.
Under feudalism, rent predominantly existed in the form of rent and corvee.
Feudal development rent: corvee
Under this form of management, land plots were divided into master shares and peasant ones. The second category was intended for plowing. In Europe, it was more than the master's share in two, or even three times. This allotment was an analogue of modern wages, but in kind. At the same time, feudal rent was levied in the form of labor: peasants should be working on the master’s domain, using their own livestock, equipment, time and labor. Feudal courtyards also participated in the process of cultivating the land, but they were entrusted with minimal tasks for organizing the work process. Barshchina suggested the allocation of a certain period (a certain number of days), when the peasants should be exerting all their efforts to cultivate the master's land. This task was paramount.
The peasant was little interested in the possibility of improving the work process in the framework of fulfilling obligations to the landowner, and the quality of work was also at a rather low level. But for themselves, people tried to work hard. In many ways, this caused the transition to a new form of interaction - natural rent. Instead of working off the peasants, the landowners considered it necessary to receive food.
Foldover
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, the concept of rent already existed, and according to this logic, entire villages were transferred to the tenant, and the owner of these territories received a good reward. The dues made it possible to achieve greater economic returns, since arable land was completely transferred to the control of 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 was observed in a relatively short period of medieval Asian states. The industrial culture grew during this period, more effective, efficient methods and tools began to be applied, since the peasants were interested in obtaining the maximum yield from the land plots transferred to them. The manufacturer could establish its own rules in the territory entrusted to it, which led to the improvement of work processes.
Products instead of working off
When, in the framework of the history of economics, the school and university programs are sorted out what forms of feudal rent existed, they pay attention to the following point: product 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 opportunity than before for the process of development, improvement, and productivity growth. At the same time, rent by products made the division of the peasantry into strata more obvious.
At the same time, urban settlements actively developed, along with them - monetary relations. This provoked further improvement of the relationship between landowners and those who worked directly on the plots. Product rents turned into feudal cash rents. This form of interaction is also considered a quitrent, but has a slightly different expression than when paying for the use of the site with products removed from this site.
Developed Feudalism: A Step Forward
This period for economic relations in society, especially in European countries, was the stage of quite substantial production progress, affecting a variety of applied areas. The trends in the division of labor intensified in society, specializations became deeper, while labor productivity increased markedly. It also affected agriculture, handicraft. Such development laid a solid foundation for the development of commodity production. And this, in turn, provided an opportunity for artisans to exist separately from the peasants who cultivate the land. Cities and villages were finally divided into two types of life, life, rules, and labor characteristics.
Mostly during this period, cities were built at points that seemed promising as trading plots. The area was supposed to be convenient for selling primarily handicraft goods, as well as for the transportation of raw materials, which were needed by small industrial enterprises of the Middle Ages. In fact, cities were built at the crossroads of trade routes. Gradually, settlements grew and competition began among residents. It was especially pronounced at the level of the population strata - urban residents and feudal lords were equally willing to control the management of the city, which led to the creation of a powerful communal movement. The communes that appeared in this period in many European cities were able to get rid of serfdom. Then many ordinary people got rid of feudal oppression - at least the most severe forms of its manifestation. In fact, in the cities such concepts as rent, corvee have become the past. Some localities also bargained for specific privileges, due to their particularly advantageous position.
Workshops as the logical development of craft and trade relations
The development of 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 the cities. The associations became such workshops, which included people engaged in the same business or in several related fields. Such an association defended itself from newcomers and regulated the rules of internal competition. The first workshops appeared in the eleventh century, the pioneers were the states of Central Europe - Germany, France, England. Over time, the system was more developed, which is most noticeable in the arrangement of cities in the fourteenth century, when in almost all countries of Western Europe such an organization of handicrafts was established.
The workshop created a local market, monopolized it and dictated the conditions for the manufacture and sale of goods. The association established what sizes to produce goods from, what to make them, how to create. In many localities, the shop supplied individual craftsmen with products, and organized joint storage. At that time, the first mutual assistance cash desks appeared, which only members of a workshop could turn to.
Ancient Russia: has its own characteristics
The part of the territory where modern Russia is located, in former times developed, albeit in a manner similar to European countries, but still had certain characteristic differences. They were most pronounced during the period from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries, but their specificity was at each stage — to a greater or lesser extent distinguishing features of the feudal organization of the state in comparison with its neighbors.
In the period of early feudalism in the territory of modern Russia, land tenure had just begun to take shape. This happened at the turn of the ninth and tenth centuries. At that time, the country was called Kievan Rus. From the thirteenth century, the era of fragmentation begins, when the boyar, princely estates opened, advanced, developed, received a high level of independence. At the same time, the population came across the yoke of the Golden Horde, which had a strong influence on the development of the state, turning the course of history a lot and throwing it back in some way.
What's next?
Tangible changes in the Russian lands occurred during the period of late feudalism, starting from the end of the fifteenth century. Patrimony is a thing of the past, estates are being formed instead. The state is losing fragmentation, the regions are united under a strong central authority, dictating 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 of the Cathedral Code, dated 1649. At the same time, a single state market began to take shape and the foundations of manufactories were laid.
The Russian way has many tangible differences from the West European. For example, agriculture, being part of market relations, did not gain independence, but the opposite process occurred: 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 the 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 ownership of peasants.
The Time of Troubles was 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, most of the regions inhabited by Russian peoples have been plagued by crop failures, which provoked a large-scale famine. Peasants enlisted en masse in mass letters, hoping thereby to secure at least some opportunity to survive, which led to a huge number of serfs. The process was finally completed in 1649 by the publication of the above-mentioned collection of laws.
Summing up: feudal rent as a period of development of society
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 in many ways controlled the processes in society. At the same time, the manufacturer 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, and ownership was a parallel concept. That is, property became the title on the basis of which it was possible to make good profits in the form of labor of peasants, products removed from the plot or money earned for the harvest. Feudal rent attracted particular attention of Karl Marx, who in his work has repeatedly pointed out that the appropriation of rent is a method of realizing land ownership.
Feudalism was accompanied by surplus labor, a product that the owner simply appropriated to 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 product, the owner took for himself the product that the peasants produced for themselves and which they desperately needed. The operational relations characteristic of the Middle Ages are embodied in the very idea of feudal rent, and at the same time in the tools through which it was realized.