Explaining the rise of the early-modern demesne economy (Gutswirtschaft) in East-central Europe: a critique of existing models

"More than 50 years ago, Jerome Blum published an excellent survey on ‘The rise of serfdom in Eastern Europe’. (Blum 1957) Although in some respects outdated - e. g. his postulation of a strict ‘dualism’ in European agrarian structure since the later Middle Ages - it discusses in a concise manner the main possible explanations for the establishment of demesne lordship (Gutsherrschaft) and a commercial demesne economy (Gutswirtschaft) in regions of East- central and Eastern Europe after 1500. His survey can thus still serve as a good starting point. The rise of the early-modern demesne economy producing for the market, which forms the focus of this paper, is part of the process which strengthened the feudal powers of noble landowners in many areas of East-central and Eastern Europe. Timing and extent of this development as well as the consequences for the rural subject population has been subject of new extensive research over the last two decades, when studies also focused on the considerable regional variation. This paper will avoid general reflections on this debate. It will present a brief survey of the main explanations put forward for the changes in agrarian structure and will then discuss and critically evaluate three theories in greater detail."