Beyond Elite Despotism and Control: The Political Economy of Iron Production and Trade in the Central European Early Middle Ages

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081758%3A_____%2F25%3A00638978" target="_blank" >RIV/68081758:_____/25:00638978 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q9IG_LuJRkYHwwHawe7IpIEqAqT7Vtuh/view" target="_blank" >https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q9IG_LuJRkYHwwHawe7IpIEqAqT7Vtuh/view</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Beyond Elite Despotism and Control: The Political Economy of Iron Production and Trade in the Central European Early Middle Ages

Original language description

The rise of institutionalised power in the European Middle Ages was driven by efforts of aspiring elites to centralise authority, control military and economic resources, and legitimise hierarchical rule. Political economy, drawing from Marx’s concept of the economy as a social structure, often focuses on how elites shaped an important aspect of economy: Specialised craft production and trade. This top-down perspective tends to depict non-elite actors as passive subjects of surplus extraction, reinforcing an image of despotic or absolute elite control. However, medieval economies, especially in small-scale and fragmented proto-state political entities of the Early Middle Ages, were shaped heterarchically by both elite strategies and non-elite cooperation. This paper challenges the notion of total elite dominance by highlighting the active roles of artisans, traders, and rural producers. Using archaeological and historical case studies, particularly from the Early Middle Ages of Central Europe and the iron industry, it explores the interaction between power structures and non-elite economic dynamics. By integrating the relation between elite and non-elites, this approach offers a more nuanced understanding of medieval production and trade. The study also introduces Political Economy as a valuable framework for analysing medieval economies beyond rigid hierarchical models.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

O - Miscellaneous

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60102 - Archaeology

Project

<a href="/en/project/GX25-15764X" target="_blank" >GX25-15764X: Frontiers and Empires. The Case of Moymirid Moravia</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů