Editor: I. Mallikarjuna Sharma Volume 11: 15-31 March 2015 No. 5-6

(2015) 1 LAW A Historical View of Law (V.V. Reddy) 13
The feudal society inherited the legacy of the
slave state, with the difference that there was no
elected law-making body, except a hereditary
one, e.g. the House of Lords in England. But in
practice the King or the Emperor, was the sole
authority to make or unmake the law by his so-called
Divine Rights of the king. In effect, this amounted to
autocracy. In spite of it, feudal mode of
production made an advance in the growth of
productive forces. Crafts and trades developed in
cities and towns, and exchange of products
between the town and the country had grown
through money, which by then became a common
medium of exchange. To put it in economic
terminology, products became commodities, that
is to say, goods to be bought and sold, and a
market was formed. Along with these exchanges,
the peasant serfs were transformed into tenant
farmers, even on the estates, and the farmers paid
a fixed rent (quit rent) to the landlords, usually
two-thirds of the crop yields. Such high rents
became a burden on the peasants. Frequent crop
failures on account of the vagaries of nature and
climate made the peasants rent defaulters. This
forced some of the peasants to desert their lords
and run away to the towns, and the landlords in
turn run to the moneylenders. And, when
landlords defaulted, they had to surrender their
estates to their creditors. In turn, the creditors
sold away the lands prosperous tenant farmers.
Thus emerged a stratum of independent landowning
peasants, which marked the decay of feudalism.
BIRTH OF A NEW CLASS: Meanwhile, the
traditional home-based crafts had developed into
workshops. The workers were hired from urban
poor and the runaway tenant farmers. The
commodities were sold and raw materials
purchased by a crop of traders who were paid a
commission for their services. 6 In course of time
the workshops became manufactories, and traders
set up their network of sales and purchases. Thus
was born a new class, known in the French as
‘bourgeoisie’ – a middle class, an independent
6 Maurice Dobb, Studies in the Development of Capitalism,
1936, p. 212.
class between the landlords and the peasants. As
the bourgeoisie became economically strong, they
began to demand equal rights on par with the
aristocracy, abolition of tax exemption to the
landlords, removal of restrictions on trade,
including foreign trade. These demands were
supported by the mercantilists, [forming] the first
school of economic thought. Its spokesperson
Thomas Munn (1571-1641 A.D.) wrote: “Although
a kingdom may receive gifts in gold from others,
but they are of small consideration. The ordinary
means to increase our treasure is to expand our
trade with foreign countries. This will also help
the growth of home production, and increase tax
revenue.” 7 Hard pressed for more revenue,
England, and some European states, removed
restrictions on home and foreign trade to meet the
demands of the rising bourgeoisie for a free trade
and enterprise. Some countries like England and
Netherlands had set up trading companies to trade
with foreign countries e.g. the [British]East India
Company and the Dutch East India Company.
Not satisfied with free trade, the bourgeoisie set its
sight on state power. The Glorious Revolution in
England (1688) had transferred all the powers of
the Emperor to the House of Commons, and the
king-emperor was made a titular head of state.
The French Revolution (1789) overthrew the rule
of the feudal aristocracy, and opened a new epoch
of capitalism, whose economic philosophy is free
trade, free enterprise and free competition. This
philosophy helped the growth of productive
forces to a level never known before. Even the
Communist Manifesto (1848) written by Marx
and Engels had to acknowledge: “The
bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most
revolutionary part. …The bourgeoisie, during its
rule of scarce one hundred years, has created
more massive and more colossal productive
forces than have all preceding generations
together.” 8 To put it metaphorically, some of the
wonders of the world like the Pyramids and the
7 Quoted by Eric Roll, History of Economic Thought, 1934,
p. 116.
8 Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 15-17.
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Law Animated World, 15-31 March 2015