Feudal Production Mode - Concept, origin and social classes

We explain to you that it is the feudal mode of production, as it arose, its social classes and other characteristics.Besides, the beginning of capitalism.

The feudal mode of production was the mode of agricultural exploitation of the Middle Ages.

What is the feudal mode of production?

In Marxist terminology, it is known as feudal mode of production (or in plain terms: feudalism), the socio-economic organization that governed medieval society in the West and others regions of the world.

In these societies, the political power was decentralized and was exercised independently by the feudal lords: the aristocracy or nobility that transmitted the power consanguineously, and that She owned the arable land.

According to Karl Marx's theorizations, feudalism historically precedes the capitalist mode of production.It consisted in a economic dynamics of submission and exploitation of the peasantry by the aristocracy and the landowners.

However, the landowners were also in relation to submission to a higher political power, which was the crown, which allowed the aristocrats political autonomy in their feudal territories, in exchange for loyalty in the military field.

Can serve you: Middle Ages

Characteristics of the feudal mode of production

The feudal mode of production was essentially a model of agricultural exploitation .It was supported by a peasant mass responsible for the production of goods and governed by a feudal lord: a landowner who gave them imposed its particular order, while exercising political and legal power, although in the latter also intervenes the Church (the clergy).

The peasants or servants paid their respective feudal lords a majority portion of what was produced with their work, in exchange for military security, order and jurisprudence.In addition, they obtained permission to inhabit tiny portions of land where their families settled.

In this relationship of exploitation of the peasantry by the aristocracy, however, there were no slavery laws , although the living conditions of the former could often resemble him.Instead, vassalage relations were established , which politically linked the peasant with the fief he inhabited.

The fiefdoms were the minimum productive unit of the system (hence its name: feudal ).They were divided territorially into:

• Senorial or proprietary reserves .His production was destined to pay tribute to the feudal lord.


• Mansos .In them the peasantry carried out the production of their own goods and thus guaranteed subsistence.

There was no type of currency or unified economic system in this model.On the other hand, cities were underdeveloped compared to the countryside.

Emergence of feudalism

The emergence of the feudal model is explained by the state of disorder and fragmentation of Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century.Such a state of shock and dissolution of powers instituted allowed the decentralization of political power and the emergence of separate kingdoms.

Each of these kingdoms was in turn divided into fiefdoms led by the nobility: dukes, barons and other noble titles, however, all of them were morally and legally subject to the Catholic Church, responsible for maintaining the social order through the indoctrination of the masses.

In addition, the Church provided spiritual legitimacy to the crown, since the kings, elected between the warrior and landowning aristocratic caste, were considered placed on the throne by God. This era was lavish in wars , so that the peasantry willingly agreed to belong to a fief in exchange for order and protection, even if they were despotic.

Social classes of feudalism

The society was severely divided between peasants, nobles and clergy.

The feudal system was practically immovable in terms of social classes , that is, the flow between peasants and noble aristocrats .The former were poor and in charge of agricultural work, and the latter were the owners of the land.

These two social classes differed widely throughout their lives and could cross their destinies rarely, one of them being war, the main obligation of the nobles and secondary of their vassals. A third social class The clergy constituted it .The Catholic Church guaranteed their subsistence but prevented them from accumulating property of any kind.

As a general rule, the status of noble or peasant was maintained throughout life, since the nobility was transmitted by consanguinea (from which there was talk of "blue blood" or "patrician blood").> Ways of social ascent were heroism in war, ascription to clergy and marriage with people of ancestry or noble surname.

Towards the end of the feudal model a new social class appeared, the bourgeoisie , composed of free men possessing businesses and capitals, although not of noble titles.As this class grew and entrenched as the new ruling class, feudalism was nearing its end.

End of feudal production mode

The feudal model of production in Western Europe came to an end around the 15th century, in the middle of the Bourgeois Revolutions , a period of profound social and political changes that responded to the emergence of a new social class: the bourgeoisie.

Of commoner origin but business owners, ex-officio merchants or capital holders, the bourgeois were gradually displacing the aristocracy , whose possession of land ceased to be a guarantee of power, as they emerged the nations and with them the presence of a currency of common use in the community.

At this time of change the Church lost its firm grip on medieval culture as religion was displaced by the cult of reason and thought.New scientific knowledge, new forms were achieved of goods production and accumulation.

These and other innovations were the result of revolutionary agricultural and industrial techniques, and the profound cultural change that took place during the Renaissance. The definitive end of feudalism came with the abolition of the absolutist monarchy during the 18th century. The French Revolution (1789) was an important milestone in that regard.

Emergence of the capitalist system

The bourgeoisie was the class that made cities and capitalism grow.

The accumulation of goods and political influences allowed the bourgeoisie to access, commercially, to noble titles initially, but then to land, political favors.Thus, it was erected as the new ruling class.

The power of the bourgeoisie did not reside as before in the blood, but in capital , that is, in the amount of money that it could accumulate and exchange for goods and services.The ruined aristocracy, instead, he is increasingly isolated in his rural areas.

On the contrary, the revolution was brewing in cities, where urban life became much more important .This would bring a new system: capitalism, in which the feudal peasants became workers , and the countryside was displaced by the factory.

Follow with: Modern Age