What is Manorialism?
[[File:plan mediaeval manor.jpg|thumb|300px|Generic plan of a medieval manor; open-field strip farming, some enclosures, triennial [[crop rotation]], [[demesne]] and [[manse]], common woodland, pasturage and meadow]] The [[Europe|European]] [[economy]] in the [[Middle Ages]] was based on the idea of '''manorialism (''seigneurialism'').''' The [[medieval]] economy relied mainly on [[agriculture]]. Manorialism describes how [[land]] was distributed and who [[Profit|profited]] from the land. == Overview == In medieval manorialism, a [[lord]] received a piece of land (usually from a more powerful [[Nobility|nobleman]] or the [[King]]). After that, the lord owned the land - and everything that was on it. That included most of the [[Peasant|peasants]] who lived on the land, including [[Serfdom|serfs]]. The peasants were [[commoners]]: ordinary people who had no [[social status]]. Usually, the peasants also had to work on the lord's lands for free. In return, the lord gave protection to the peasants and allowed them to live on his land. Lords had certain [[legal]] powers, like that of a [[Police|police force]]. === Tributes === Peasants were their lord's subjects and had to pay [[tribute|tributes]] to him. The amount they had to pay varied. They could pay with money, but because they were [[subsistence farming|subsistence farmers]], they had no money. Peasants could pay tributes in other ways. They could do free work for their lord. They could also give the lord some of the food they grew. Typically they would give the lord a certain [[percentage]] of their [[harvest]] (for example, 10%). This method is also called ''[[sharecropping]]'' or ''payment in nature''. ==Common features== === Classes of land === Under manorialism, there were up to three different classes of land. Not every lord had all three of these types of land on his manor. The first class of land was called ''[[demesne]]''. The lord controlled this land and used it for himself. Villeins lived and worked on the second type of land: ''depend