READ AND DISCUSS:

The Manifesto explains how capitalism hasn’t always been in existence – the bourgeoisie grew as a class during the previous era of feudalism.

Lesson Eleven on ‘Slavery and Feudalism’ in the separate ‘Introduction to Marxism ¹⁵’ course on the Marxist Education Portal, explains how “as the feudal ruling class sank into decline, the embryo of a new society was beginning to form in the towns. Encouraged by growth in long-distance trade, artisans and merchants gathered at town markets to sell their goods. Artisans also found buyers for their goods locally, particularly among the feudal lords and the richer peasants. These processes – growth in the production of goods to sell at market and the increasing crisis of feudal power in the countryside – reinforced each other. Town guilds and corporations were beginning to introduce capitalist relations, employing a growing army of labourers working for wages, the basis for the capitalist mode of production. Trade grew in the emerging towns, then expanded further as new markets were found, especially once the Americas and other parts of the globe were conquered by the European powers”.

So, from the original class of independent artisans and small merchants, the modern bourgeoisie emerged, as some pushed others aside to become a class of big capitalists owning huge factories, expanding industry and transport, concentrating property in their hands more and more. They became the new ruling class.

But the bourgeoisie didn’t achieve their position without a revolutionary struggle of their own. In France, the old order was definitively thrown aside by a Revolution; even in England a King lost his head during a Civil War.

Lesson Twelve on ‘Capitalism and Socialism’ in the ‘Introduction to Marxism’ course explains how “the capitalist-led forces overthrew the monarchy and established a parliament dominated by capitalist representatives as the supreme political authority, and a legal system that backed up the economic and political interests of the capitalist class. Once they had helped the capitalists win power, radical groups such as the Diggers and the Levellers were crushed. Scared of the aspirations of the peasantry and wage labourers, the capitalists made some concessions to the aristocracy and restored the monarchy. Nearly 400 years on, Britain still has relics of feudalism, including a House of Lords. This process of capitalist triumph over feudal relations took place at different times across the world, for instance in the late eighteenth century in France and the United States”.

Reading this information alongside the introductory paragraphs from the Manifesto:

1. Explain how, under feudalism, ‘the embryo of a new society’ – a capitalist one - started to form in the towns.

2. What factors helped to strengthen the position of this new urban middle-class, until a new capitalist ruling-class, the bourgeoisie, emerged from its ranks?

3. Marx and Engels write that “the bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.” What revolutionary changes – and actual revolutions - did the capitalist class bring about as they overthrew the previous, feudal, system?