ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the evolution of human economic systems from communal, tribal societies to the more hierarchical systems of slave-based empires, feudalism and mercantilism. The criteria for achieving a high social status varies substantially based on the society and its priorities. Traditional economies valued the production of food and held the most productive hunters and gatherers in high esteem. The importance of group identification is even more crucial because the production and storage of surplus food made warfare increasingly important. Feudalism is organizes around independent manors, which consisted of large tracts of land controlled by a lord. All of western Europe came to be divides into independent, self–sufficient, isolated manors. In an agriculturally based economy, agricultural technology is the primary determinant of the amount of surplus a community. The feudal manors of Europe were small, self–sufficient, and hierarchical, with less trade than the Roman Empire.