A Millennium of Family Change: Feudalism to Capitalism in North Western Europe

How do changes in family form relate to changes in society as a whole? In a work which combines theoretical rigour with historical scope, Wally Seccombe provides a powerful study of the changing structure of families from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Responding to feminist critiques of ‘sex-blind’ historical materialism, Seccombe argues that family forms must be seen to be at the heart of modes of production. He takes issue with the mainstream consensus in family history which argues that capitalism did not fundamentally alter the structure of the nuclear family, and makes a controversial intervention in the long-standing debate over European marriage patterns and their relation to industrialization. Drawing on an astonishing range of studies in family history, historical demography and economic history, A Millennium of Family Change provides an integrated overview of the long transition from feudalism to capitalism, illuminating the far-reaching changes in familial relations from peasant subsistence to the making of the modern working class. Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 - Labour-power, Family Forms and the Mode-of-Production Concept 9 Towards an Expanded Mode-of-Production Concept 10 Human Labour-Power and Its Production 14 Conceiving of Family Forms in Modes of Production 22 Patriarchal Power and Family Relations 30 2 - Peasant Family Forms in The Feudal Mode of Production 37 Origins of Feudal Land Inheritance and Peasant Family Forms 43 Feudal Synthesis in the Early Middle Ages 56 The Manor, the Village and the Peasant Holding 78 The Division of Labour between Spouses 83 Peasant Stratification 87 The Mode of Seigneurial Exploitation and the Reproduction Cycle of Labor-Power 91 Peasant Inheritance Customs and Strategies 96 Mate Selection, Betrothal and Wedding Rituals 108 Widows and the Family Cycle 117 Household Composition and Divergent Family Cycles 121 From Overextension to Crisis 126 3 - Population and Changing Family Forms in the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism Part I - Late Medieval Crisis and the Origins of the Western European Marriage Pattern 133 The Shifting Balance of Power in the Wake of the Black Death 136 Continuity and Change in Peasant Stratification 141 Tenure Shifts and Inheritance Forms 143 Land Availability and Inheritance Norms 148 Origins of the Western European Late Marriage System 150 Demographic Recovery: 1450-1600 157 Economic Recovery and Deteriorating Wages: 1450-1600 159 Peasant Polarization 162 Part II Proletarianization and Changing Family Forms 166 Proletarianization and Capital Accumulation 172 The Land-Poor and the Landless, the Settled and the Vagrant 174 Early Proto-industrialization: The Kaufsystem 181 Foundations of the Western European Marriage Pattern 184 Seventeenth-Century Stagnation and the Last Feudal—Agrarian Cycle 190 Proletarian Self-Expansion before 1750? 194 Domestic Service in Husbandry 197 Part III The Population Boom: Springboard to Industrial Capitalism - 200 The Agricultural Revolution and the Decline of Service 202 The Verlagssystem’s Expansion and Shifts in the Conjugal Division of Labour 205 The Mortality Decline after 1750 208 Explaining the Population Boom 212 Migration and Regional Demographic Trends 219 Proletarianization and the Rise of Extramarital Childbirth 225 The Demographic and Industrial Revolutions 229 4 - Conclusion Family Change from Feudalism to Capitalism 223 Western European Marriage and the Rise of Industrial Capitalism 239 Women and Patriarchy in the Transition to Capitalism 242 Appendix: A Note on the Brenner Debate 247 Notes 255 Bibliography 307 Index 333 Drawing on a wide range of studies in family history, historical demography and economic history, this book provides an overview of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, demonstrating the changing structure of families from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution.