English Feudalism and the Origins of Capitalism GEORGE C. COMNINEL The specific historical basis for the development of capitalism in England — and not in France — is traced to the unique structure of English manorial lordship. It is the absence from English lordship of seigneurie banale - the specific political form of parcellised sovereignty that figured centrally in the development of Continental feudalism - that accounts for the peculiarly 'economic' turn taken in the development of English class relations of surplus extraction. In France, by contrast, the distinctly 'political' tenor of subsequent social development can equally specifically be traced to the central role of seigneurie banale in the fundamental class relations of feudalism. That the development of Western European societies generally, and England and France in particular, has been at least roughly parallel over the course of the past six centuries or longer has undoubtedly been among the most pervasive ideas of historically oriented social science. Even behind the emphasis specialists may give to particular differences, the presumption exists of a common European pattern of development. George C. Comninel, Department of Political Science, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Canada, M3J 1P3; e-mail
[email protected]. An early version of this article was presented as a working paper to the History and Society Program of the University of Minnesota more than a decade ago. The author is grateful to the members of that program for their lively discussion and extensive comments. He is enormously indebted to his former colleague Sam Clark, of the University of Western Ontario, and to Ellen Meiksins Wood, for comments on and encouragement of this work over too many years.