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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

12. The Economy of Germany

The development of feudal relations in Germany was uneven and generally slower than in the romanized countries. This was due to climatic conditions, the terrain, the low level of development of productive forces, the presence of a large number of vacant lands, the high degree of stability and adaptability of the brand community * that developed from tribal to rural, territorial, and other factors towards the beginning of the feudal era.

* Mark - in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, a rural community in which arable land was owned by members of the brand, pastures, forests and other lands - common property.

It also happened that there was no slavery, a slaveholding formation, except for the western part of the country, which at the turn of our era fell under the rule of the Romans. Therefore, Germany is characterized not by a synthetic path of development of feudalism, combining ancient and barbarous elements, but transition to a feudal mode of production directly from the decomposition of the primitive communal system. The enslavement of free community members was more difficult than the transformation of former slaves into serfs, as was observed in the romanized countries.

The introduction by the German invaders in these territories of the communal system not only slowed down the enslavement, but to some extent softened the difficulties of this process.

As K. Marx wrote: "The new community, in which arable land is the private property of farmers, while forests, pastures, wastelands, etc., are still common property, was introduced by the Germans in all the conquered countries. Thanks to the characteristic features borrowed from her prototype, she throughout the Middle Ages was the only hotbed of freedom and people's life "*.

* Marx K., Engels F. Works. T. 19.- S. 417-418

The balance of the Roman and Germanic principles in Gaul secured the establishment of feudal relations in the 8th-9th centuries. In Italy, where the predominance of Roman principles was noted, feudalism was established in the 10th century, and in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, where the Roman origins were either extremely weak or absent altogether, the feudal system was established only in the 11th-13th centuries.

12.1. The Epoch of Early Feudalism (VX cc.)

Allod free Germanic

On the territory of Germany, the formation of the prerequisites for the future feudal system took place on the basis of the separation of the brand community , the differentiation of free community members and the gradual subordination of their tribal and serving nobility.

By the end of the first century. N. E. The German tribes continued to maintain collective ownership of the land, but it was in the use of separate "large families", usually consisting of three generations of relatives. Periodically, there were redistributions of arable land, but the homestead land on which the commune's house stood was apparently already his property. The embryonic structure of German tribes, the presence of free, freedmen and slaves, the gradual formation of patronage relations were also the germinal elements of the future feudal system, which subsequently developed and strengthened for several centuries. True, the slave here was more like a serf or servant.

In the following centuries, the process of differentiation of the tribal community has deepened. On the basis of significant tribal groups there are more or less large peoples: at the mouths of the Rhine - friezes, on the lower Rhine - francs, on the middle and upper Rhine - allemens, between the middle Danube and the North Sea, in the east of the Rhine - Bavaria, Lombards, Saxons and Etc. As a result, based on tribal principalities arose duchies: Swabia, Bavaria, Franconia, Saxony, Lorraine, Frisia. The deepening of the stratification is also associated with aggressive campaigns within the Late Roman Empire, where the German kings and dukes elected for the duration of the campaign received the lands of Roman owners, as well as the spread of Christianity.

The final stage in the transformation of the tribal community into a neighboring, territorial, defining the inevitability of establishing a new, feudal system, was the emergence of the allod. This meant that the arable land, formerly the property of the brand community, became hereditary, although not unconditional, possession of individual families, which they could freely alienate by buying and selling and in other ways.

An example was not only the Roman private ownership of land, but, above all, its own German experience. Thus, in the narrow valleys of the Berg district, on the narrow elevations between the marshes in Westphalia, in most Alpine valleys, the relief of the terrain initially determined the practice of transferring land to hereditary use. With the emergence of the right to transfer the estate to third parties and in other parts of Germany, the struggle for turning arable land into freely alienated individual-family property is unfolding, which is reflected in the refusal of the redistribution of arable land.

Bavarian and Saxon Pravda

The similar development of the process taking place in different Germanic lands at different rates is evidenced by the numerous German Pravda, a record of the customary law of the Germanic tribes, composed between the fifth and ninth centuries, as well as studies by scientists, including the work of Engels Mark , "On the History of the Ancient Germans", "The Frankish Period" *.

* See: Marx K., Engels F. Soch. T. 19.

In particular, in one of the most valuable monuments of the VI-VIII centuries. In the "Bavarian Pravda" still see blood ties, a special system of kinship and other institutions of the clan system. In the event that the Bavarian did not have relatives, a duke or a patron received the virus (vergeld) , that is, the one to whom the murdered was committing himself (handed over himself) during his lifetime. In the system of fines and penalties, along with the payment in favor of relatives, a large part was played by a contribution in favor of the fiscal. And most importantly - the Bavarians, who had small families, the head was a free member of the commune, a member of the mar kova union and the owner of the allod.

Allod of the free Bavarian as a share in the community-brand was already a commodity: the land could be bought and given. Only coercion was prohibited for sale and donation, but this ban remained only on paper. It was very difficult to prove the compulsion to donate or sell.

Bavarian society has reached a significant differentiation. Along with the very well-to-do members of the community, who owned dozens of slaves and approached their small patrimonial status according to their status, there were poor people and "worst people" here. Free Bavarians lost their freedom as a result of violent abductions for the purpose of selling into slavery, and such based on the debtor's mortgage, when he could not pay high wins and fines.

Located in the south of Germany, Bavaria already in the VI. Recognized the supremacy of the Merovingians. True, politically the power of the Merovingians was largely nominal, but the Bavarian nobility quickly appreciated the benefits of Christianity as an ideological system of feudal society. By the beginning of the VIII. Christianity was finally established throughout Bavaria. Under Karl the Great, the process of enslaving the peasants of Bavaria accelerated. The sale, donation, fragmentation of the peasant allot-gufa, the royal land grant to the secular and spiritual feudal lords on the basis of beneficiaries that later became hereditary in the 11th century, inevitably led to the emergence of large-scale landed property and the establishment of economic and personal dependence of yesterday's free community members from secular and Spiritual feudal lords.

The system of exploitation of the peasantry, indicated in the chapters of the Bavarian Truth, shows that there was no sharp distinction between the feudal relations of Bavaria and the western regions of the Frankish state. The church could turn a community member into a serf (serv) for a repeated violation of the ban on working on Sunday. The peasants' obligations consisted of corvée (field, garden, transport, etc., masonry of calcareous stoves, the construction of master's yards, cows, barns, haylofts, etc.). Peasants paid natural obrokas with grain, flax, honey, chicken, eggs, etc. The peasant made a special choice for the right to graze livestock in a communal meadow. Barshchina in the church land was three days a week, i.е. 50% of the working week. In addition, in 779 in the Frankish state was introduced "a large tithe" - a tax (to file) in favor of the church in the amount of 1/10 of the harvest.

After 32 years of war, Karl the Great in 804, defeated the Saxons. The Saxon Truth, recorded at the turn of the ninth century, but reflecting even earlier features of the Saxon society, also shows that the former property equality has long since ceased to exist, although the process of differentiation has been slower here than in Bavaria. The document reports the presence of the nobility (nobilis or zdelgi), free (freelings) and semi-free (lazi or litas). In the VIII century. Part of the freelings entered under the patronage of the nobility; The facts of donating property to nobles became more frequent. Litas were dependent on the master and could achieve freedom for ransom. At the same time, the Lithuanians have not yet completely lost their freedom, they are legally capable and capable and could even own slaves. Thus, the feudal relations of the Saxons were still in its infancy, but the development of social differentiation and the increase in the number of gifts, more often, apparently, forced, indicate the appearance of the allod.

In the rebellious Saxony, Christianity was introduced by fire and blood. Charlemagne made massive expulsions of Saxons into the interior of Gaul and completely evicted Nordalbings. The Saxon nobility was equalized in rights and position with the Frankish feudal lords. However, the separatism of the Saxon feudal lords stubbornly persisted for centuries. The forcibly baptized Saxons became the object of feudal exploitation by the state, their own and Frankish feudal lords.

"The Country of the Teutons"

In 843 the sons of Louis the Pious on the basis of the Treaty of Verdun divided the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, created in 800 by their grandfather Karl the Great. Land beyond the Rhine, in part - along the Rhine and its right tributaries, Bavaria received Louis German. This East-Frankish state and became known as the "country of the Teutons". In 962, Otto I of the Saxon dynasty restored the Roman Empire. Later this event was called "Restoration of the Holy Roman Empire". Since then, the German will be simultaneously the sovereign of Italy, often giving German affairs directly to the secular princes and kings and on the basis of investment (limited in 1122 by secular investment), i.e. The allotment of the chosen spiritual person with earth, to the spiritual princes. The desire of the German kings (emperors) for world domination, combined with the electivity of their electors (spiritual and secular princes-voters), subsequently confirmed by the Golden Bull (1356), has for centuries been consolidated by fragmentation and power in Germany. If the absence of the German state hindered the process of feudalization, and the emergence accelerated it, the subsequent political fragmentation determined the differences in the position of the peasantry of West and East Germany, and covered up the toughening of serfdom.

The situation of the peasantry

IX century. Was a period of intense enslavement of farmers - community members of the southern regions of Germany. At this time, to the east of the Rhine, there were still a relatively large number of free owners of their land, although there were few fully free villages. In the X-XI centuries. Well-to-do farmers, capable of serving in the cavalry, replenish the ranks of chivalry. The difference between these "ignoble" and "noble" knights disappears in the XIII century. The impoverished farmers fell into land and personal dependence, becoming serfs - heyge. There were also real slaves (leibaygsne), who were in full power of the feudal lord and were part of his court. Finally, in the XI century. There was a generalized concept of "peasant" - Bauer , meaning that the line between non-belligerent farmers and warriors not working on the ground as a whole was defined. Free peasants became less and less.

The economic fragmentation of the country has determined the differences in the situation of the peasantry of West and East Germany.

The usual duties of peasants in both the west and the east of the country are obrok, ie, Rent products. The peasants gave large and small cattle, poultry, game, lard, cheese, milk, grain, fish, malt, beer, vegetables, honey, wax, firewood, flax to the master's yard, often crafts-spurs, barrels, braids, axes and Axes, furniture, horseshoes, shoes, fur coats, etc. Another guilty duty was corvée, quite diverse - field (lesson or time), work on the land of the lords, felling and felling of forests, korchevanie, burning coal, burning lime, shipping and underwater duties, construction work, maintenance of the master's yard - from cooking, cleaning Premises to the obligation to breastfeed the children of the feudal lord.

Extremely heavy duty was the tithe, which often collected not only spiritual, but secular feudal lords. Along with this, a death penalty was levied - transferring to the master part of the property of the deceased peasant (usually cattle). This selection, called a tertiary, often extended to "free" peasants. In northwestern Germany, the peasant serfs paid not all of the eastern part of the population to be fed and mortal fights not only with cattle, but also with clothing. In the southern and south-western regions, corvee only rarely replaced by a money rent.

Productive forces

In the period of feudalism in Germany, natural economy dominated. Harvest was not high. At the time of the Carolingians, water mills appeared , on which wheat was grinded, thanks to which the lifting capacity of carts and wagons, windmills, which soon became an obligatory part of the rural landscape, increased noticeably. Occasionally applied three- field system in the XII-XIII centuries . Will become dominant. And although the productive forces remained low, based on routine technology, the emerging feudalism ensured a higher productivity of labor than the slave system, as evidenced by the separation of craft from agriculture and the ongoing process of supplementing the military, administrative and cult functions of cities with the functions of handicraft production and trade .