Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism: Germany and England Compared (c.1200–c.1800) |
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| Authors: | Shami Ghosh |
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| Affiliation: | Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c.1200 to c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of Robert Brenner, it is argued that the period c.1200–c.1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to Brenner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in Germany as well as in England; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c.1800. |
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| Keywords: | transition from feudalism to capitalism agrarian history sub‐peasant classes economic development England Germany Brenner debate industrious revolution |
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