p The progressive development of the productive forces continued under feudalism. It was in this period that men 213 began to employ, in addition to their muscular strength, the power of water and wind, to make use of water- and winddriven mills, sailing ships, etc. Men learned how to produce iron out of pig iron, invented paper, gun-powder, book printing and made a number of other discoveries which played a great role in the history of mankind.

p The crafts advanced further; new implements and machines were invented and old ones improved. Progress was particularly apparent in textile production in which a spinning-wheel, ribbon loom, twisting machine and other innovations were introduced. The labour of the craftsman became specialised, considerably raising productivity. With the development of the crafts and trade towns grew, some of them becoming major world craft and trading centres.

p Agriculture made progress as new varieties of grain, fruit and vegetables were cultivated; the soil was tilled more thoroughly and fertilisers were introduced. Animal husbandry was extended, draught animals were employed on a wider scale and the output of animal products was increased.

p The development of the productive forces under feudalism was facilitated by the feudal relations of production. These relations were based on the feudal lord’s ownership of the means of production (mainly the land) and incomplete ownership of the serfs. The serfs had to work for the feudal lord and perform all kinds of labour services for him. He could buy and sell serfs, but their lives no longer belonged to him.

p The production relations under feudalism, as in the slaveowning society, were relations of domination and subjection, exploitation of the serfs by the feudal lords. Nevertheless, they were more progressive, because they made the producer to some extent interested in his labour. The peasants and the artisans had their own property (the peasant could own a plot of land, a horse and other livestock, and farming implements; the artisan owned tools or simple machines) with which, after performing all feudal duties, they worked for themselves. They were interested in improving the implements and methods of farming and handicraft.

p As regards feudal society’s superstructure, it was in effect just as exploitative as that of the slave-owning 214 formation. The only difference was that it protected the economic and political interests of the feudal lords, and not of the slave-owners, and was designed to preserve and strengthen feudal private property and the production relations which rested on it, i.e., the economic basis of feudalism. The state apparatus and the armed forces expanded, religion became dominant in the intellectual life of society and was used by the ruling class to justify private property and the exploitation of the labouring people.

p As time went on the productive forces continued to develop. A particularly big impetus to their progress was given by the great geographical discoveries at the turn of the 16th century (the discovery of America, the route to India, and so on). An international market began to take shape and the demand for various commodities increased, which handicraft production was no longer able to satisfy. Manufacture came to take the place of the handicraft workshop. Manufacture brought together under one roof a large number of workers, introduced a wide division of labour between them and thereby greatly increased labour productivity. The rise of manufacture signified the birth within feudal society of new, capitalist production and its intrinsic, opposing classes—the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

With the appearance of manufacture the productive forces came into contradiction with the feudal production relations. Manufacture demanded a free worker while feudalism tied the serf to the land; manufacture needed a broad international market, the establishment of which was hampered by the closed feudal economy, its isolation and the natural economy. It became necessary to replace the feudal relations of production with new, capitalist relations. This was accomplished by a number of bourgeois revolutions in which the main fighting force were the serfs and the lower sections of the urban population led by the bourgeoisie.