Abstract

The all-too-common neglect of household production in mainstream Marxist analyses of capitalism finds its counterpart not only in the neglect of non-field production in feudalism, but also in a failure to recognize the performance of surplus labor within the households of feudal lords. Recognition of both of these leads to a new perspective on the transition from feudalism to capitalism and, in addition, on the changing structure of gender relations that accompanied this transformation of class relations. Specifically, capitalism substituted contractual relations between capitalists and individual wage-laborers for the feudal relationships between heads of households. At the same time, the surplus produced by servants within ruling-class households, which once contributed to the reproduction of feudal relations within the ruling class, came to be seen as a deduction from the funds that could be used for the accumulation of capital