Dobb-Sweezy Debate.

The transition from feudalism to capitalism has been a topic of lively debate among a large number of
historians and economists who are primarily concerned with the prime factor which brought about the
dissolution of feudalism and the rise of capitalism. This is regarded as one of the most revolutionary
and far-reaching transformations in the history of mankind. The debate begins with the Dobb-Sweezy
controversy.
Maurice Dobb in ‘Studies in the Development of Capitalism’ locates the decline of feudalism in the
contradictions inherent in the feudal system of production. He challenged the most commonly
accepted explanation that credits the decline in feudal polity to the growth of trade and commerce.
Instead, he asserts that the decline was solely the work of internal forces while not denying the role of
the growth of towns and trade, that according to him, helped to accelerate the process of disintegration
of the old feudal mode of production.
surplus extraction under feudalism, highlights Dobb, was characterized by extra-economic
compulsions of the feudal lords. The demands of the feudal lords in terms of revenue from the
peasants were unlimited; they exerted inhuman pressure on the cultivators, forcing them to work for
greater hours on the lord’s lands. Thus they were left w no time for the production in their own lands.
this proved to be disastrous for the feudal system as the over-exploitation of the labor force led to an
exhaustion or actual disappearance of the labour force by which the system was sustained.
Moreover, the use of primitive methods of cultivation led to the low productivity of land in the feudal
system of production. But this did not prevent the feudal ruling class from intensifying pressure on the
cultivators. Furthermore, the expenses of war and the Crusades led to a special drain of feudal
revenues during this period that led to the increase in the revenue demand. At the same time, the
feudal lords had developed a taste for new expensive trading items for which they needed more
money. Thus, according to Dobb, the essential cause of the breakdown of feudalism was the
overexploitation of the labour force. He argues that under these circumstances, the serfs deserted the
lord’s estates, qnd the remaining were too overworked to successfully maintain the feudal system. It
was these internal developments rather than the rise of trade which finally led to the decline of
feudalism in Western Europe.
Paul Sweezy, another economist, challenged Dobb’s theory of the decline of feudalism and sought to
explain the transition from feudalism to capitalism by referring to factors that were external to the
feudal system. He argues that the overexploitation of the labour force by the feudal lords referred to
by Dobb, was an outcome of forces operating outside the feudal system. the growth of long-distance
trade brought into existence, a system of production for exchange and give birth to a money economy.
The old feudal estates, with their limited financial resources failed to compete with this new system.
Moreover, the spread of commerce introduced a variety exotic and expensive commodities to the
feudal ruling class the purchase of which needed more money and this to a certain extent intensified
their pressure on the labour force.
Although he agrees with Dobb that the flight of the serfs from the land was one of the decisive factors
in the decline of feudalism, he differs by asserting that this was brought about by the overexploitation
of the labour force. He claims that in spite of the exactions of their masters, the serfs would not have
deserted the manors unless they had some place else to go. the rise of the towns not only ooffeed
liberty but also employment and improved social status, opened up to the servile population of the
countryside, the prospect of a better life.
In the end, Dobb argues that the decline of feudalism was a result of the ‘interaction’ of internal
conflicts and external forces. At the same time, he asserted that trade exercised its influence to the
extent that it accentuated the internal conflicts within the old mode of production.
Both Dobb and Sweezy suffer from prejudices and fail to give a comprehensive transition of
feudalism to capitalism. While Dobb overemphasises the importance of internal factors, sweezy
ignores them altogether and concentrates entirely on external forces. The transition from feudalism to
capitalism was a confluence of both the factors. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that Maurice Dobb
and Paul Sweezy started a lively debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism and prepared
the ground for future scholars.

Dobb-Sweezy Debate.

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The transition from feudalism to capitalism has been a topic of lively debate among a large number of

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