Describe The Relations of Production in the Feudal Society

The engine of the relations of production in the feudal economic system was vassalage
i.e. the dependence of the large, poor landless producers on a small class of wealthy, land
owners – the feudal lords.

Unlike the slave, the serf possessed a domestic economy dependent on his own household
labour. Land, the principal factor of production belonged to the feudal lord. The lord
divided his estate into two i.e. personal farm land and rented farmland. The serf became
tied to the land by law and used it on the premises of bondage.

The relations of production in feudalism were governed by the serf-Landlord
relationships. While the serf enjoyed the cultivation of the Lord’s land, he/she in turn had
to offer labour on the Lord’s personal farm. Thus the serf engaged his labour power and
time in two productive activities:
1) Production for household self-sustenance
2) Production of surplus for the landlord.
Therefore the serf engaged in necessary and surplus labour time activities. This surplus
labour and also part of his necessary labour was appropriated by the landlord in the form
of rent of land. Three forms of feudal rent existed:-
1) Labour rent
This was common during the early phases of feudalism – 9th - 11th century. It took the form
of what was called corvee i.e. work for the Lord for ¾ days in a week and the rest on his
farm.
2) Rent in kind
Developed during the 12th and 13th centuries. The serf surrendered 1/3 to 1/5 of his farm
produce to the Lord or an agreed quantity of craft articles, cattle, poultry etc. The peasant
maximized his labour productivity to meet both his household needs and the material
goods required by the Lord.

3) Feudal Money Rent
Developed during the last stages of feudalism with the rise of commodity – money
relations. Money rent encased the payment of a specific amount of cash to the Lord
periodically. This practice fuelled class differentiation both in Europe and Asia. Serfs
also paid for the use of flour mills, watering places, courts, markets, road tolls and other
taxes to the state including 1/10 of their harvest to the church in the form of tithes.
Generally different forms of feudal rent co-existed simultaneously e.g. all the above
forms existed in Tsarist Russia.

During the 14th and 15th centuries the feudal M.O.P. underwent rapid changes with the
growth of trade between rural and urban areas. The merchants and craftsmen who
comprised the urban populations formed guilds to maximize production and evade
exploitation by the Lords. Serfs flocked to towns to join these guilds and seek
employment far away from the exploitative Lords.

Class struggles in the feudal economic system thus emerged pitting two antagonistic
classes against each other i.e.
1) NOBILITY CLASS – feudal Lords, government officials etc. who had wide
economic and political privileges and owned the largest estates.
- it also had the clergy i.e. church officials who were big land owners and had
some privileges from feudal Lords.
2) SERFS – Largest class of poor landless people. They had no rights, could be
bought and sold etc. They paid numerous taxes that maintained the nobility
and the government.

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Titany answered the question on December 8, 2021 at 06:58