Agriculture in the Byzantine Empire (IX.-X. Centuries)

The agricultural question presents itself under a double aspect. The one, whichone might call the legal aspect, concerns the form of land tenure. The other is theeconomic aspect, in other words, the nature and the conditions of agriculturalproduction. Of these two aspects the latter is one of the most obscure; but even as to thefirst there is much less information than is generally supposed.About the first aspect, concentrated at first in the hands of great landowners inthe early days of the Empire, the land is seen, in the time of the Iconoclasts, to bedivided between the agriculturists and the peasant communities; later there is areversion to the earlier system of large estates. The struggle for the protection of smallholdings, which was carried on vigorously from the days of Romanus I Lecapenus tothose of Basil II, finally ended in failure. Consequently, during the last two centuries ofits existence Byzantine society became heavily feudalized.Key Words: Agriculture, Peasant, FeudalismIII