Feudal rent

In a broad sense, it refers to all fixed and high rents other than modern rent, and in a narrow sense, it refers to excessive rents that lords collected from peasants under serfdom by using their power (extra-economic coercion). The former definition can be found in James Anderson's Effects of Rent and of Tythe (Recreations, vol. V, 1801) and in Marx's Capital, Volume 3, Chapter 37 onwards. According to this definition, modern rent is based on the principle that only when a large land-tenant, an agricultural capitalist, earns profits that exceed the average profit, he pays the excess to the landlord. Therefore, fixed rents such as tithes, which are collected regardless of whether there is excess profit or not, and high rents, which take away the profits themselves, are considered feudal rents.

The narrower definition is said to have originated from Marx's theory of rent, and is the generally accepted view. According to this, the ratio of rent to production in French rent manors reached over 30%, and the Japanese Edo period land rent rate was based on a principle of 40%, i.e., 40% for the public and 60% for the people, and both are considered typical examples of feudal rent. In the early Showa period, there was a debate as to whether the high rent rates established under the parasitic landlord system from the Meiji period to the early Showa period should be considered feudal rent, but the feudal rent view is now predominant. French feudal rent was fundamentally rejected during the French Revolution, and the high rent rates under the parasitic landlord system in Japan were abolished with land emancipation.

The corvée, prominent in the classical manors of the West, is usually considered a typical example of feudal rent, but in fact it was nothing more than a case of wealthy peasants providing part of their slave labor to the lord. In other words, it is similar to modern rent paid by agricultural capitalists to landlords, who are also the upper class of the ruling class in capitalist societies, in that the wealthy peasants responsible for providing the corvée were members of the ruling class just like the lords. However, the corvée that spread in England around the 13th century was a labor rent that the lords forced on serfs, and was a type of feudal rent.

[Ichiro Tochigawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

広義には、近代地代以外のいっさいの定率および高率の地代をさし、狭義には、農奴制のもとで領主が権力（経済外的強制）をもって農民から徴収した過重な地代をさす。前者の定義は、アンダーソンJames Anderson『地代と十分の一税との効果』Effects of Rent and of Tythe（Recreations, vol. V,1801）およびそれを継承したマルクス『資本論』第3巻第37章以下にみえる。それによれば近代地代とは、大借地農たる農業資本家が平均利潤を超える利潤を得た場合だけ、超過分を地主に支払うことを原則とする。したがって超過利潤の有無に関係なく徴収される十分の一税などの定率地代や、利潤そのものを奪い取る高率地代は、封建地代とみなされる。

　狭義のほうは、マルクスの地代論に由来するとされ、ほぼ通説となっている。それによれば、フランスの地代荘園(しょうえん)で生産物に対する地代の比率が30％以上に達し、日本の江戸時代の地代率が四公六民すなわち40％を原則としたのは、ともに封建地代の典型とみなされる。なお明治期から昭和初期にかけて寄生地主制のもとに形成された高率地代を、封建地代とみるか否かの論争が、昭和初期に行われたが、現在では封建地代説が優勢である。フランスの封建地代はフランス革命で原理的に否定され、日本の寄生地主制下の高率地代は農地解放で廃棄された。

　西洋の古典荘園に顕著な賦役も、普通、封建地代の典型とされるが、実はおもに富農が自家の奴隷労働力の一部を領主に提供したものにすぎない。すなわちそれは、賦役提供責任者たる富農が、領主と同じく支配階級の成員であった点で、農業資本家が同じ資本主義社会の支配階級上層たる地主に支払う近代地代に似ている。ただしイギリスで13世紀ごろ広まった賦役は、領主が農奴に強制した労働地代で、封建地代の一種であった。

［橡川一朗］

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