Definition
Manorialism was the economic foundation of medieval Europe, the local counterpart to the political system of feudalism. While feudalism described the bonds among lords and warriors, manorialism described how the land was actually farmed and how ordinary people lived.
The basic unit was the manor — an estate held by a lord that included farmland, a village, and often a mill, church, and the lord's residence. The manor aimed to produce nearly everything its inhabitants needed, making it a largely self-sufficient world.
Why it matters
How it works
A manor's land was typically divided into the lord's own holdings, the strips worked by peasant families, and shared resources such as pasture and woodland. Peasants spent part of their time farming the lord's land and the rest farming their own, while also owing fees and a portion of their harvest.
This arrangement was stable but slow to change. As medieval Europe revived trade, founded towns, and developed a money economy, serfdom gradually weakened. Peasants increasingly paid rent in cash rather than labor, and the tightly bound manorial world slowly dissolved.