Editing Manorialism (section)

== Historical and geographical distribution ==
[[File:Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry mars.jpg|thumb|Ploughing on a French ducal manor in March from the manuscript, {{lang|fr|[[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry|Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]}}, {{circa|1410}}]]

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]] ([[Dominate]]). Labour was the key [[factor of production]].<ref>Donald J. Herreld, (2016) An Economic History of the World Since 1400. The Great Courses. P. 20.</ref> Successive administrations tried to stabilise the imperial economy by freezing the social structure into place: sons were to succeed their fathers in their trade, councillors were forbidden to resign, and ''[[Colonus (person)|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.<ref>C.R. Whittaker, "Circe's pigs: from slavery to serfdom in the later Roman world", ''Slavery and Abolition'' '''8''' (1987) 87–122.</ref>

Several factors conspired to merge the status of former slaves and former free farmers into a dependent class of such ''coloni'': it was possible to be described as ''servus et colonus'', "both slave and ''colonus''".<ref>Averil Cameron, ''The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity AD 395–600'', 1993:86.</ref> The Laws of [[Constantine I]] around 325 both reinforced the semi-servile status of the ''coloni'' and limited their rights to sue in the courts; the ''[[Codex Theodosianus]]'' promulgated under [[Theodosius II]] extended these restrictions. The legal status of ''adscripti'', "bound to the soil",<ref>Cameron 1993:86 instances ''[[Codex Justinianus]]'' XI. 48.21.1; 50,2.3; 52.1.1.</ref> contrasted with barbarian ''foederati'', who were permitted to settle within the imperial boundaries, remaining subject to their own traditional law.

As the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] kingdoms succeeded Roman authority in the west in the fifth century, Roman landlords were often simply replaced by Germanic ones, with little change to the underlying situation or displacement of populations.

The process of rural self-sufficiency was given an abrupt boost in the eighth century, when normal trade in the [[Mediterranean Sea]] was disrupted.