Text 2 (E) Capitalism

Text 2 (D) Feudalism

The feudal system existed in almost all countries. The epoch of feudalism covers a long period. In China the feudal system existed for more than two thousand years. In the West-European countries feudalism spread over some centuries, from the fall of the Roman Empire to the bourgeois revolutions in England and France. In Russia it lasted from the 9th century to the abolition of serfdom in 1861.

The production relations of feudal society were based on the private landed property of the lords and their incomplete property rights over the serf. He was not a slave; he had his own holding. The peasant holding was the means by which the landlord secured his labour force.

The towns, inhabited mainly by craftsmen and traders, were subjected to the authority of the feudal lord on whose land the town was built.

Under feudalism the productive forces reached a higher level than those under the slave system. Production technique in agriculture was improved; new branches of field cultivation arose, market gardening developed considerably.

But the feudal system acted as a brake on the productive forces development, so capitalist relations of production began to appear. The abolition of feudalism became a historical necessity.

NOTES: * holding – хозяйство

The development of capitalism dealt a crushing blow* to natural economy. Under capitalism everything, including man's labour power, took the form of a commodity. Commodity production became dominant and universal.

Once commodity production under capitalism had become the prevailing form of production, the relations between people in the process of production, i.e. their production relations, took the form of commodity relations. To exploit the worker the capitalist has to hire him while the worker has to sell his labour power, which is not a commodity. The worker receives a wage with which he buys his means of subsistence** - commodities.

NOTES: * dealt a crushing blow - нанесли сокрушительный удар; ** means of subsistence - средства существования

ВАРИАНТ I

1. Перепишите предложения. Подчеркните глагол-сказуемое в каждом из них и определите его видо-временную форму и залог. Переведите предложения на русский язык. Например: will be said – Future SimplePassive. В разделе (B) обратите внимание на особенности перевода пассивных конструкций.

А). 1. In centrally planned economies government planners decide what goods will be produced. 2. Many nations of Eastern Europe are undergoing transition from communism to capitalism. 3. Before 1988 Hungary had taxed successful companies in order to provide subsidies for inefficient companies. 4. Some nations of Eastern Europe took steps to join the ranks of Western developed nations in becoming mixed economies.

B). 1. Such economies are called traditional economies. 2. Some countries exhibit elements of traditional economies in their tendency to make economic decisions according to how things have been done in the past. 3. Profitable companies are allowed to keep a large share of their profit. 4. In centrally planned economies government planners set the prices at which goods are sold. 5. The work people do is called economic activity. 6. Once the simple tools of labour were made, the need arose among the primitive men to communicate with one another. 7.1 have just been told I shall get better wages next month. 8. Nothing more will be said about the matter. 9. This door must be kept shut. 10. The market is being investigated.

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