Innovative Feudalism. The development of dairy farming and Koppelwirtschaft on manors in Schleswig-Holstein in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Early modern Schleswig-Holstein saw the development of manorialism of the type, widespread in East-Elbian Germany and further east, of large demesnes farmed primarily with the labour services of dependant peasant farms and cottages. In traditional understanding, such manors are associated with a 'simple' production of grain, but in Schleswig-Holstein they developed a highly-regarded form of dairy farming and a new layout and usage of fields, the Koppelwirtschaft. The paper discusses the relation between these developments and the 'feudal' work organization of these manors and demonstrates that feudal demesne lordship could be combined with technical modernization. It also appears that the distinction between unfree labour service and paid work is not always a simple one to make.