Page "Manorialism" Paragraph 6

The term is most often used with reference to medieval Western Europe.

Antecedents of the system can be traced to the rural economy of the later Roman Empire.

With a declining birthrate and population, labor was the key factor of production.

Successive administrations tried to stabilize the imperial economy by freezing the social structure into place: sons were to succeed their fathers in their trade, councilors were forbidden to resign, and coloni, the cultivators of land, were not to move from the land they were attached to.

The workers of the land were on their way to becoming serfs.