Obviously capitalism bad, but it bought greater production, technological advance, medicine, and treats for the lucky. I just wonder if 15th century serfs in France got any material benefit from owing most of their harvest to the lord. Did Baron Scrotumface help them make better plows and scythes, or was it all just expropriation?
This is a very low effort question because I’m tired from work.
Local lords had access to trade networks and specialist laborers that the common folk didn’t, and they were expected to gift things back to their peasants with banquets and festivals. So yes, Baron Scrotumface might actually be where you got your better plows and scythes from, along with fabrics and spices from more than a few towns away.
Would your subsistence farming community have been able to produce these things themselves? Well, not while they’re busy spending all their time generating a surplus to feed nobles.