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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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Freedom's Price - Serfdom, Subjection, and Reform in Prussia, 1648-1848 (Hardcover)
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Freedom's Price - Serfdom, Subjection, and Reform in Prussia, 1648-1848 (Hardcover)
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It is usually claimed that serfs were oppressed and unfree, but is
this assumption true? Freedom's Price, building on a new reading of
archival material, attempts a fundamental re-appraisal of the
continuing orthodoxy that a 'serf' economy embodied peasant
exploitation. It reveals that, in fact, Prussian 'subject' peasants
fared much better than their 'free' neighbours; they had mutual
rights and obligations with nobles and the state. In this volume,
Sean Eddie seeks to establish the true 'price of freedom' paid by
the peasants both in the so-called Second Serfdom around 1650 and
in the enfranchisement of 1807-21. Far from representing further
exploitation, the peasants drove a hard bargain, and many nobles
subsequently fared worse than their tenants; subjection was
abolished and land ownership was transferred from noble to peasant.
Capital was therefore at the centre of the pre-capitalist economy,
and the growing economic polarization of society owed more to the
peasants' access to capital than to noble exploitation. By locating
Prussian serfdom and reforms in a pan-European context, and within
debates about the nature of economic development, feudalism, and
capitalism, Freedom's Price targets a wider audience of early
modern and modern European historians, economic historians, and
interested general readers.
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