Auges y declives de la servidumbre en Europa durante la Edad Media y la Edad Moderna

Abstract

Ten years after the edition of «The Brenner Debate» (Cambridge, 1985), the author goes back again to the question of the limits of the political domination in the Middle Ages. The paper is concerned with the rises and falls of serfdom in Europe. In his usual way, Brenner compares the intraclass structure and the class structure in different medieval societies in several regions. Three models are underlined: the French «classical feudalism», the English and Catalonian «decentralised centralism» and the Eastern European aristocratic state of the Early Modern period. Reviewing from the eleventh to the fifteenth century, the article puts into relation the ruling class constraints to reproduce its economic and social position and the organization of more complex institutions, such as the feudal states. These provided the nobility with better political tools toward their own cooperation and, finally, toward a more efficient economic explotation.