Lordship as Enterprise. Neoinstitutionalism and Social Relations in Feudalism
Main Article Content
Abstract
This work aims to critically reconstruct the conceptualization formulated by neoinstitutionalist historiography regarding lordship, in particular, and feudal social relations, in general. Through a reading of leading authors in New Institutional Economics, this study examine how the analytical categories used reflect the fundamental theoretical assumptions of neoclassical economics. It is argued that this approach tends to dehistoricize seigneural system by conceiving it as a contingent form of economic organization aimed at solving efficiency problems, thus subsuming coercion, feudal rent, and relations of domination to a cost-benefit approach. Consequently, the social relations inherent in feudalism appear reduced to mechanisms of allocating resources, while the historical and social content of feudal exploitation is marginalized in the analysis. In response, it is proposed to recover a conceptualization of lordship centered on the social relations of production, rather than on an individual cost-benefit analysis.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Works are released under Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional License which provides unrestricted use, copy and redistribution in any medium or format and remix, transform and build upon the original work properly cited. The Creative Commons License stipulates that: "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)."
References
Ankarloo, D. (2002). New Institutional Economics and Economic History. Capital & Class, 78, 9-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/030981680207800102
Astarita, C. (2025). Los medievalistas ingleses y la historia económica. Sociedades Precapitalistas, 15, e091. https:// DOI: https://doi.org/10.24215/22505121e091
doi.org/10.24215/22505121e091
Bhaduri, A. (1998). Eficiencia económica e instituciones agrarias. Repositori Universitat Jaume I, 15, 15-28. http://
hdl.handle.net/10234/116522.
Boutruche, R. (1973). Señorío y feudalismo. Primera época: los vínculos de dependencia. Siglo XXI.
Campbell, B. M. (2005). The Agrarian Problem in the Early Fourteenth Century. Past & Present,188, 3-70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gti017
Coase, R. (2003). La naturaleza de la empresa. En Roamer (Comp.), Derecho y economía, una revisión de la literatura (pp. 558-575). Fondo de Cultura Económica.
Colombo, O. (2015). Feudalismo y mercados. En C. Astarita (Comp.), Edad Media. Recorridos historiográficos (pp.
-197). Editorial de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
Da Graca, L. (2023). La renta feudal como relación de dominación. Notas sobre la obligación de alojar y abastecer a la comitiva señorial. Sociedades Precapitalistas, 13, e076. https://doi.org/10.24215/22505121e076 DOI: https://doi.org/10.24215/22505121e076
Dahlman, C. J. (1979). The problem of externality. Journal of Law and Economics,22(1), 141-162. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/466936
Dennison, T. K. (2006). Did serfdom matter? Russian rural society, 1750-1860. Historical Research, 79(203), 74-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2006.00352.x
Epstein, S. R. (1991). Cities, regions and Late Medieval Crisis: Sicily and Tuscany compared. Past & Present, 130(1), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/past/130.1.3
-50.
Epstein, S. R. (1994). Regional Fairs, Institutional Innovation, and Economic Growth in Late Medieval Europe. The DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2597589
Economic History Review, 47(3), 459-482.
Epstein, S. R. (2006). The rise of the West. En J. A. Hall & R. Schroeder (Eds.), An anatomy of power: The social theory DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511488993.011
of Michael Mann (pp. 233-262). Cambridge University Press.
Epstein, S. R. (2009). Libertad y Crecimiento. El desarrollo de los estados y de los mercados en Europa, 1300-1750.
Publicacions de la Universitat de València.
Fazzini, M. (2022). Gremios, instituciones urbanas y acumulación de capital. La producción textil en Murcia 1370-1500). [Tesis de doctorado, Universidad de Buenos Aires]. Repositorio Institucional Filo Digital. http://repositorio.filo.uba.ar/handle/filodigital/16222
Fenoaltea, S. (1975a). Authority, Efficiency, and Agricultural Organization in Medieval England and Beyond: A DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700073733
Hypothesis. The Journal of Economic History, 35(4), 693-718.
Fenoaltea, S. (1975b). The Rise and Fall of a Theoretical Model: The Manorial System. The Journal of Economic DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700075100
History, 35(2), 386-409.
Kosminsky, E. (1956). Studies in the agrarian history of England in the thirteenth century. Basil Blackwell.
Marx, K. (1992). El Capital, tomo I, vol. 1. Siglo XXI.
Marx, K. (1992). El Capital, tomo III, vol. 8. Siglo XXI.
McCloskey, D. N. (1989). The Open Fields in England: Rent, Risk and the Rate of Interest, 1300-1850. En D. W. Galenson (Ed.), Markets in History: Economic Studies of the Past (pp. 5-51). Cambridge University Press.
North, D. C. (1971). Institutional Change and Economic Growth. Journal of Economic History,31(1), 118-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700094109
North, D. C. (1990). Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511808678
North, D. C. (1991). Institutions. The Journal of Economic Perspectives: A Journal of the American Economic DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97
Association, 5(1), 97-112.
North, D. C. & Thomas, R. (1991). El nacimiento del mundo occidental: una nueva historia económica (900-1700).
Siglo XXI.
Ogilvie, S. (2007). ‘Whatever is, is right?’ Economic Institutions in Pre-Industrial Europe. The Economic History DOI: https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1004445
Review,60(4), 649-684.
Olson, M. (1971). The theory of groups. En The logic of collective action: Public goods and the theory of groups (pp. 5–52). Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjsf3ts.5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjsf3ts.5
Richardson, G. (2015). What protected peasants best? Markets, risk, efficiency, and medieval English agriculture.
Research in Economic History, 21, 299-356.
Simon, H. (1976). Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. Free Press.
Van Zanden, J. L. (2009). The Long Road to the Industrial Revolution. The European Economy in a Global Perspective, 1000-1800. Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004175174.i-346
Wickham, C. (2005). Framing the Early Middle Ages. Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800.Oxford Univerisity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199264490.001.0001