The comparative analysis of Lithuanian manorial-serf economy and hacienda economic system of Latin America in the context of capitalist world system: from the second half of the 18th to the second half of the 19th centuries

Abstract

The paper compares for the first time in historiography the Lithuanian manorial-serf economy and Latin American hacienda economic systems of the second half of the 18th century to the second half of the 19th century in the context of the capitalist world system (CWS). The main focus will be on the explication in macro level of similarities and differences of structures and development trends of these systems. The analyzed period corresponds to the stage of both the dominance and intensification of manorial-serf economy in Lithuania and predominance and intensification of hacienda economy in Latin American countries and it was determined by the same factor of the industrial revolution. The study confirms the thesis that these economic systems belonged to typologically closed economic kind (they were focused on the serfdom method of production) in the global division of labor. It shows that both Lithuanian manorial-serf economy and haciendas of Latin America were not typical feudal enterprises, but displayed only peripheral (agrarian) capitalism features.