The feudalism debate once more: The case of Byzantium

Abstract

This article takes up one aspect of the debate on feudalism and non‐European societies. Through a review of elements of the social and economic history of the late Roman and Byzantine states, it seeks to demonstrate, first, how and why these social formations should be considered feudal; second, that a broad application of the concept of the feudal mode of production as a concept of political economy is both theoretically more valid and analytically more fruitful than its restriction to the examination of types of society traditionally identified as feudal on the basis of their institutional and super‐structural appearance. The crucial point in this context is the rigorous separation of concepts belonging to theoretical and heuristic categories such as mode of production from the forms which these concepts express in specific historical societies.

Notes

Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, PO Box 363, Birmingham B15 2TT, England. The author is particularly grateful to Rodney Hilton and Chris Wickham for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article.