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Describe the relations of production within the tributary economic system

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Unlike in the feudal economic system where the serf was completely subservient to the
landlord who owned the factors of production, the peasant cultivator in the tributary
economies was a free producer residing on communal/state lands for which he did not
pay rent. The relations of production were governed by the state-cultivator relations
through the payment of tribute. Tribute was not fixed, mandatory or a requirement for
one to use state lands. No cultivator was evicted from state lands for failing to pay tribute.
Within the kingdom, the cultivators organized their productive activities in largely a
cephalous (free) units based on family and work group labour units.

The household was the most important unit of production. Household labour was
organized on age, gender and specialization indices. Household heads organized their
homestead’s labour power in relation to the family’s production and material
requirements. Each household cultivated whatever crop it wanted, kept the stock it
required and exchanged commodities freely without the state’s direct intervention.

Men engaged in more muscular activities e.g. clearing bushes, breaking new crop fields,
fencing, building and construction etc. while women engaged in domestic chores,
planting, weeding and partly harvesting. The state appropriated part of the household
labour power through military service etc and produce through tribute.
Crafts industry availed non-agricultural commodities which together with grain and
livestock comprised a thriving trading network that characterized tributary economic
systems.

Titany answered the question on December 8, 2021 at 07:18

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