Byzantine "feudalism"

yzantine society and economy evolved in such a way, in the late Byzantine period, as to frequently give rise to the question of whether we would be justified in speaking of a Byzantine feudalism as it presented itself in medieval Western Europe. It is a question that has often occupied scholars, but one on which opinions differ.

The Byzantine state displayed certain similarities but also important differences as compared to the Western feudal system. The basic feudalistic elements apparent in Byzantium are the dominance of great landowners, with their concomitant power in every area, and the obligation to provide service in order to receive a pronoia. What is different is that, in the late Byzantine period, small land-owning farmers, although few in number, still continued to exist. In the Byzantine system, the private corvee (angareia) existed, but to a very limited extent as compared to Western feudalism, in which the cultivation of the land in great part depended on it.

Speaking very generally, it can be said that the Western fiefs were small states which were almost independent, having their own administration, their own laws, judiciary system, economic life and, quite often, their own coinage as well. The Western sovereign governed his domain from the castle in which he resided. On the contrary, in Byzantium, there subsisted until the very end a form of central government, in spite of all the efforts exerted during the last period to achieve self-administration and to split up authority. Moreover, the great landowner very often lived in the city. Also, the subjects of Byzantium did not have to swear allegiance as did those of the West. The existence, in Byzantium, of a bourgeoisie engaged in commercial activity constitutes another basic feature that widely differentiates the Byzantine system from that of Western feudalism.

We may say then, in conclusion, that the fact that certain elements found in Byzantium corresponded to similar ones in Western feudalism, on a whole the economic, social and political institutions of Byzantium never constituted a Western-type feudal system. It is thus better to speak only of certain feudal characteristics that had taken shape in the Byzantine state.