Neo-feudalism or pre-capitalism? Some methodological considerations on the peasant land market in Flanders and Brabant

Abstract

The emergence of factor markets during the transition from the middle ages into the early modern period was of crucial importance for long-term economic development. The current historiographical debate however, lacks a quantitative analysis of the market for land in the (Southern) Low Countries, one of the most densely urbanized regions with a rural economy that, by all means, can be considered pre-capitalistic. This paper focuses on two methodological issues. First, I problematize the concept of property rights and its (mis)use in historical discourse. Rather than using the property rights as a conceptual basis, I propose usage rights, since this terminology is a far better fit for the economic and social reality of the Early Modern Low Countries. Second, I elaborate on the wide variety of sources that are available to historians to study the pre-modern land market. Combining the two elements, I subsequently embed the peasant land market within its larger socio- economic context