Session 1

The west prior to capitalism: A survey of the ‘feudal

relations of production’ in medieval Europe
The current context of world business is capitalism. Capitalism
did not always exist, it emerged in Europe through a set of social
and economic changes. These changes altered the context of
business.
But what is capitalism?
Capitalism is understood as a set of relations of production in
which the owner of the capital uses it to acquire labour. For the
capitalists relations of production to emerge both the owner of
capital and labour must be free.
Once upon a time in Europe the capitalists relations of
production did not exist since multiple restrictions existed on
capital and labour.
What existed in Europe before capitalism?
The west prior to capitalism : a survey of the ‘feudal relations of
productions’ in medieval period.

The feudal relations of productions emerged from feudalism.

Feudalism was a political and economic structure in which the
powers of the king were limited by the institution of lordship-
there were lords under the king who had judicial, economic, and
military powers. The basis of the lords power was a landed
estate granted to him, it was called the manor or seigneur.
Feudalism was at its height roughly form 1000-1300 AD.
Feudal economy-
The feudal economy was mainly agrarian and rural. There were
very few towns and cities and little manufacturing. The basis of
agrarian economy was the lord’s estate or manor. A manor was
one complete village controlled by a lord. The cultivated land in
the manor comprised of two kinds of peasant plots :-
1) Free mense (allod)
2) Servile mense (villein)
The peasants cultivating the servile mense owed the lord certain
labour services for which they were not paid. They had to work
a certain number of days in a week on the lords own private plot
(called demesne) without payment. Their wives had to cook,
clean or weave in the lord’s castle. If the castle was repaired
they had to provide material and labour for free. This system
was called serfdom. The cultivators of the servile mense could
not leave the manor. These demands were not made upon the
cultivators of the free mense.
Some taxes were demanded from both the cultivators of the free
and servile mense.
1) Tithe (one tenth of the produce for the manor church,
actually kept by the lord).
2) Taille (a contribution to the lords kitchen).
The lord also had a monopoly of brewing and selling beer in the
manor and of grinding corn in his mill.
Nature of production –
Production was for domestic use and not for sale in the market.
Production for market took place at a very limited scale in the
towns and cities. The economy of a manor operated without
money through barter.
Production took place with basic technology and generally
without specialisation.