Rural Economies and Transitions to Capitalism:Germany andEngland Compared (c.1200–c.1800)

Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on E ngland and G ermany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio‐economic developments from c. 1200 to c. 1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub‐peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which – towards the end of the period – a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of R obert B renner, it is argued that the period c. 1200– c. 1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to B renner's definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio‐economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in G ermany as well as in E ngland; it is predicated both on ideological shifts and on the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c. 1800.