AN OUTLINE OF TYPOLOGY OF SOCIAL RELATIONS IN THE COUNTRIES OF BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION IN THE VII–XIV CENTURIES

Summary

The main concepts which the author operates in his attempt to describe typologically a type of social relations in the area of Byzantine civilization in the Middle ages are: an Asiatic mode of production, a slave mode of production, feudalism and so called semi-feudalism. According to E. Gudavičius there were two ways of historical development of the humankind: the main one (exstensive) and the exceptional one (intensive). Absolute majority of civilisations developed towards the pattern of the main way. The first exception was the Ancient Greece in the archaic period (VIII–VI century BC). The most important thing was that the idea of private property was born during that period. The Rome also continued to develop in this direction but at the end of antiquity it reached the deadlock (during the barbarian invasions in IV–V century AD). Nevertheless the Roman ruins were “radioactive”: Germanic tribes became acquainted with the idea of the private property. Because of that the allodial property of land and a holding of individual producer was born. So the exceptional way of production had reborn and had acquired a new