[p2p-research] The three exodus and the transition towards the p2p society

[Kevin Carson]

On 4/27/10, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear friends, on may 2, I publishing the following, which I think is quite
> important as a hypothesis,

> Three Times  Exodus, Three Phase Transitions

> The second transition: feudalism to capitalism

> Something very similar starts occurring as of the 16th century. The feudal
> system enters in crisis, and serfs start fleeing the countryside, installing
> themselves in the cities, where they are rejected by the feudal guild
> system, but embraced by a new type of proto-capitalist entrepreneurs. In
> other words, a section of the feudal class (as well as some upstarts from
> the lower classes) re-orient themselves by investing in the new mode of
> production (and those that don’t gradually impoverish themselves), while
> serfs become workers.

I think here you may be conflating two different exoduses (exodi?).
The free towns themselves, which marked the high point of the medieval
system, were established largely by runaway serfs, and formed around
the nuclei of large strategically situated villages at major
crossroads, fords, etc.  The shift to capitalist employment, I think,
was associated with the later alliance between absolute monarchs and
the plutocracy, and involved the suppression of the free towns.

So the founding of the original free towns and guild systems by exodus
from the countryside, and the employment of refugees from the
countryside in proto-capitalist shops outside the guild system, were
two separate phases.

I'm basing this largely on my memory of Kropotkin's account in The
State and Mutual Aid.
-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution:  A Low-Overhead Manifesto
http://homebrewindustrialrevolution.wordpress.com
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html