Serfdom

농노제도

serfdom, condition in medieval Europe in which a tenant farmer was bound to a hereditary plot of land and to the will of his landlord. The vast majority of serfs in medieval Europe obtained their subsistence by cultivating a plot of land that was owned by a lord. This was the essential feature differentiating serfs from slaves, who were bought and sold without reference to a plot of land. The serf provided his own food and clothing from his own productive efforts. A substantial proportion of the grain the serf grew on his holding had to be given to his lord. The lord could also compel the serf to cultivate that portion of the lord's land that was not held by other tenants (called demesne land). The serf also had to use his lord's grain mills and no others. (see also  slavery)

농노 (農奴, serf). 세습농지와 영주에 예속되어 있던 중세 유럽의 소작농민신분.

중세 유럽의 농노 대부분은 지주의 땅에서 농사를 지어 생계를 꾸려나갔다. 이 점은 농노의 주요특징으로 토지와 상관없이 사고 팔 수 있었던 노예와 구별되었다. 농노는 노동을 통해 스스로 음식과 의복을 얻었으며 소작지에서 나는 곡물 중 상당 부분을 영주에게 바쳐야 했다. 영주는 다른 소작인이 맡지 않은 영주 직영지(demesne land)의 일부를 농노에게 경작시킬 수 있었고, 농노는 자기 영주의 방앗간만을 이용해야 했다.

By the 14th century, economic conditions in western Europe were favourable to the replacement of serfs by a free peasantry. The growth of the power of central and regional governments permitted the enforcement of peasant-landlord contracts without the need for peasant servility, and the final abandonment of labour services on demesnes removed the need for the direct exercise of labour discipline on the peasantry. The drastic population decline in Europe after 1350 as a result of the Black Death left much arable land uncultivated and also created an acute labour shortage, both economically favourable events for the peasantry. And finally, the endemic peasant uprisings in western Europe during the 14th and 15th centuries also forced more favourable terms of peasant tenure. Although the new peasants were not necessarily better off economically than were their servile forebears, they had increased personal liberties and were no longer entirely subject to the will of the lords whose lands they worked.

This favourable evolution was not shared by the peasants of eastern Europe. Peasant conditions there in the 14th century do not seem to have been worse than those of the west, and in some ways they were better, because the colonization of forestlands in eastern Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, and Hungary had led to the establishment of many free-peasant communities. But a combination of political and economic circumstances reversed these developments. The chief reason was that the wars that devastated eastern Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries tended to increase the power of the nobility at the expense of the central governments. In eastern Germany, Prussia, Poland, and Russia, this development coincided with an increased demand for grain from western Europe. To profit from this demand, nobles and other landlords took back peasant holdings, expanded their own cultivation, and made heavy demands for peasant labour services. Peasant status from eastern Germany to Muscovy consequently deteriorated sharply. Not until the late 18th century were the peasants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire freed from serfdom, thus recovering their freedom of movement and marriage and the right to learn a profession according to personal choice. The serfs of Russia were not given their personal freedom and their own allotments of land until Alexander II's Edict of Emancipation of 1861.

그러나 동유럽 농민들은 서유럽 농민들 같은 혜택을 입지 못했다. 14세기만 해도 그들은 서유럽 농민과 비슷한 상태에 놓여 있었으며, 동부 독일, 폴란드, 보헤미아, 모라비아, 헝가리에서는 삼림지역에 사람들이 정착하면서 자유 농민 공동체가 많이 생겨나 어떤 면에서는 서유럽보다 낫기도 했다. 그러나 14~15세기 동유럽을 휩쓴 전쟁 때문에 중앙정부가 힘을 잃고 귀족의 권력이 커지는 등 정치·경제 상황의 변화는 동유럽 농민의 지위향상을 방해했다. 이런 사태는 서유럽의 곡물수요가 늘어난 것과 때를 맞추어 동부 독일, 프로이센, 폴란드, 러시아에서 일어났다. 귀족들과 지주들은 수요증가를 틈타 이익을 보려고 농민보유지를 도로 빼앗고 영주 직영지를 늘렸으며 농민들에게 과중한 노동 봉사를 요구했다. 그결과 동부 독일에서부터 모스크바 대공국에 걸친 지역에서 농민의 지위는 급격히 낮아졌다.

18세기말에야 오스트리아-헝가리 제국의 농민들은 농노제에서 풀려나 거주이전과 결혼의 자유를 회복하고 자신의 선택에 따라 전문기술을 배울 수 있는 권리를 갖게 되었다. 러시아의 농노들 역시 1861년 알렉산드르 2세가 농노해방령을 공포할 때까지 인신의 자유와 개인토지를 갖지 못했다.

Throughout Chinese history, land-bound peasants were considered freemen in law but depended entirely upon the landowner for subsistence. In this system of serfdom, peasants could be traded, punished without due process of law, and made to pay tribute to the lord with labour. All serfs were freed, however, upon the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949.