Feudalism, Capitalism and Beyond

Feudalism, Capitalism and Beyond Eugene Kamenka and R.S. Neale Editors This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991. This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press. This project aims to make past scholarly works published by The Australian National University available to a global audience under its open-access policy. Feudalism, Capitalism andBeyond fig rU R M ' a W ' » “ P^O'RGSMD RTTAiL FRIGE 3 rUEL.GATjOH DATE 2 7 jam 1975 Feudalism, Capitalism and Beyond Editors Eugene Kamenka and R. S. Neale Contributors H. E. Hallam/Eugene Kamenka/C. B. Macpherson/ R. S. Neale/J. G. A. Pocock/Alice Erh-Soon Tay/F. J. West Australian National University Press Canberra 1975 First published in Australia 1975 Printed in Australia for the Australian National University Press, Canberra ©The Australian National University 1975 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Kamenka, Eugene, 1928- ed. Feudalism, capitalism and beyond/[edited by] Eugene Kamenka and R. S. Neale.—Canberra: Australian National University Press, 1975. ISBN 0 7081 0357 X. I. Property — Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Marxian economics — Addresses, essays, lectures. I. Neale, Ronald Stanley, joint ed. II. Title. 330.17 North, South, and Central America: International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., Portland, Oregon. Southeast Asia: Angus & Robertson (S.E.Asia) Pty Ltd, Singapore. Japan: United Publishers Services Ltd, Tokyo. Contents vi Preface 2 Introduction R. S. Neale 28 1 The MedievalSocial Picture H. E. Hallam 50 2 On the Ruins of Feudalism — Capitalism? F. J. West 62 3 Early Modern Capitalism: the Augustan Perception J. G. A. Pocock 84 4 The Bourgeoisie, Historically, Has Played a Most Revolutionary Part' R. S. Neale 104 5 Capitalism andthe Changing Concept of Property C. B. Macpherson 126 6 Beyond Bourgeois Individualism: the Contemporary Crisis in Law and Legal Ideology Eugene Kamenka and A lice Erh-Soon Tay 145 Notes on the Contributors Preface Since its formation in 1969, the History of Ideas Unit in the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University from year to year has presented a series of lectures or arranged a weekend seminar on concepts or events that stand out in the history of modern thought, that will help bring together men and women working in dif ferent universities and different fields, in many cases in different countries, and make a contribution to the culture and thinking of a wider public. The first such series of lectures, presented as the A.N.U.’s University Lectures for 1970, was published under the title >1 World in Revolution? and is already in its fourth printing. The second set, pub lished by ANU Press as Paradigm for Revolution? The Paris Commune 1871-1971, and the third, Nationalism - the Nature and Evolution of an Idea, have also had a gratifying response from reviewers and the reading public. Much of the impetus for the organisation of these lectures and seminars, and much of their success, has stemmed from the presence in the Unit, as Visiting Fellows, of some very distinguished thinkers from overseas — Professor Karl August Wittfogel during the World in Revolu tion series, Dr Maximilien Rubel for the Paris Commune lectures and Professors Avineri, Mosse and Plamenatz for the Nationalism series. Their considerable contribution to the success of these lectures has been augmented, most significantly, by our being able to draw on the talents and generosity of other departments in our University, of other Universities, and of the wider Australian intellectual community — on Dr Ian Turner, Professor George Rude and Professor P. H. Partridge for the Revolution lectures, on Professor R.B. Rose, Dr F.B. Smith and Professor Austin Gough for the Commune series, on Professor Wang Gungwu and Professor F.X Martin of University College, Dublin, and La vii Trobe University for the Nationalism lectures. One mentions these names, from Australia and from overseas, with gratitude because they have given us the confidence and the intellectual substance with which to embark upon a series that is now, with this book, reaching its fourth volume. In 1973, when Professor J.G.A. Pocock of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri and Professor C.B. Macpherson of the University of Toronto were working in the Unit, we organised, in place of public lectures, a weekend seminar under the title ‘Capitalism — The Emergence of an Idea’. It was meant to explore an idea of overwhelming world- historical importance, enormous complexity and even greater untidiness. We were very lucky indeed, in having — apart from our visitors — Professor H.E. Hallam of the University of Western Australia, Professor R.S. Neale of the University of New England, Dr Francis West of our own University, and Professor G.S. Yule of Ormond College to present papers. Chairmen of the sessions included Professor C.P. Kiernan of Wollongong University, Professor D.M. McCallum of the University of New South Wales, Professor Colin Howard of the University of Mel bourne Law School and Dr Robert Banks of the A.N.U. Discussions were opened by Mrs Sybil Jack of Sydney, Dr Alison Patrick of Melbourne and Professor C.M. Williams, Dr R.F. Brissenden and Dr S.J. Stoljar of the Australian National University. The papers presented here are the outcome of the discussions at that seminar. The idea of capitalism — if there be such an idea at all — proved both fascinating and much too large to be manageable. The participants, quite properly, chose to tackle highlights, nodal points or lines of stress, faults where the whole structure might crumble. But there is little doubt that explicitly or implicitly nearly all our participants had in their sights such a structure — the Marxian conception of capitalism as a total social formation, distinct from feudalism but yet arising out of it, and itself — according to Marx — doomed to give way to a ‘higher’ mode of social organisation and life. Some of our contributors — Professor Hallam, Professor Pocock and Dr West — are clearly most sceptical of the relevance of many Marxist ways of putting things or of this general Marxist conception of history for the study of either feudalism or capi talism. Some of them are sceptical whether there is such a thing as feudal/sm or capital ism at all. Others — Professor Neale and Professor Macpherson and perhaps Dr Tay and myself — clearly believe that Marx did raise some of the central issues for any general understanding of the dynamic development of Europe and, since then, of the world. The volume now before the reader, then, does not pretend to be an viii exhaustive systematic or definitive discussion of the rise, development and possible fall of the complex set of circumstances, ways of working and attitudes that make up capitalism or give rise to its ideology. The volume, rather, is a collection of essays on a theme. These essays make their point in different contexts and in different ways, but always, it seems to me, with insight, originality and a keen sense of what is relevant and what is not relevant in considering great and complex questions of history and of the human condition. The papers are held together not only chronologically, by their moving from a consideration of ‘feuda lism’ to the consideration of aspects of ‘capitalism’ and of its possible future; they are also held together by the fact that they all contribute in important ways, whether positively or negatively, to considering the truth or falsehood, usefulness or lack of usefulness, of the Marxist account of that movement. In preparing the papers for publication, and adding to them a paper that Dr Tay and I had written for another pur pose, I was very fortunate to be able to persuade Professor R.S. Neale to join me as co-editor of the volume and to write for it a substantial introduction. That introduction both presents for us a complex and sophisticated revision and restatement of the Marxist theory of the transition from feudalism to capitalism and brings the remaining papers into relation to each other and to the theme that has emerged from the book. What each contributor would have said to Professor Neale’s intro duction and to the points raised by his fellow-contributors, the reader is deliberately left to judge for himself. To Professor Neale, to the other contributors and to all the participants in the seminar, to Miss W.G. Gordon, then Secretary of the History of Ideas Unit, and her successor Mrs V. Wetselaar, who have typed and arranged the manuscripts and to Mrs E.Y. Short, Research Assistant in the Unit, who checked the manu scripts and read the proofs, I owe a great debt of gratitude. For the errors that remain I, as the Editor on the spot, take responsibility. Canberra Eugene Kamenka March 1974 Introduction Property Law, and theTransition from Feudalism to Capitalism R. S. Neale 3 I In the first part of this introduction I will emphasise what seems to me to be central to each paper and indicate what each has to say about property and law in relation to the Marxian model. In the second part of the introduction I will set out in some detail what I believe Marx to have said about the nature and development of capitalism. This is because versions of the Marxian model incorporated in the various papers are but partial versions offered for purposes of debate.

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