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serf

serf An unfree medieval peasant under the control of the lord whose lands he worked. As villeins or servants of a lord they represented the bottom tier of society. They were attached to the land and denied freedom of movement, freedom to marry without permission of their lord, and were obliged to work on their lord's fields, to contribute a proportion of their own produce, to surrender part of their land at death, and to submit to the justice and penalties administered by their lord in the manorial court in the case of wrongdoing. The lord had obligations to his serfs (unlike slaves), most notably to provide military protection and justice.

Serfdom originated in the 8th and 9th centuries in western Europe and subsequently became hereditary. In much of western Europe the system was undermined in the 14th century by the BLACK DEATH and starvation resulting from war, which led to acute labour shortages. Commutation of their labour for cash meant that the lord became a rentier and the serf a tenant; in the PEASANTs' REVOLT in England (1381) the main demand was for the abolition of serfdom and the substitution of rent at 4 pence an acre for services. However, in the eastern regions of Germany and Muscovy, the increased power of the nobility led to consolidation of serfdom. It was formally abolished in France in 1789, but lingered in Austria and Hungary till 1848, and was abolished in Russia only in 1861.

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

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	DISA Group acquires SERF. (Acquisitions).(Brief Article) Magazine article from: Modern Casting; 5/1/2002; 74 words ; DISA Group, Herlev, Denmark, acquired SERF S.A., Lorient, France, a supplier of automation for trimming iron and aluminum castings. SERF has approximately 80 employees. SERF will continue all present activities and become DISA... Read more
	Self storage sale.(Westchester)(Katonah Self Storage facility)(Storage Post Serf Storage)(Brief Article) Magazine article from: Real Estate Weekly; 6/23/2004; 100 words ; ...Katonah, N.Y. was recently sold to Storage Post Serf Storage. The existing site consists of 361 rental...one three-story 56,000 s/f building. The Katonah Serf Storage facility is a premier serf storage facility offering its customers state-of-the... Read more
	The Chinese government has announced that March 28 will henceforth be celebrated as Serf Liberation Day in Tibet, commemorating the day in 1959 when China took full control of Tibet, sweeping away the evils of the old clerico-feudal order and bringing all the blessings of Communism and Mao Tsetung Thought to the long-suffering Tibetan peasantry.(The Week)(Brief article) Magazine article from: National Review; 2/9/2009; 179 words ; ...has announced that March 28 will henceforth be celebrated as Serf Liberation Day in Tibet, commemorating the day in 1959 when China...a nation once their own, their culture marked for extinction. Serf Liberation Day will not assuage the injustice of that. Read more
	Disa SERF, Caudan, France, has appointed Equipment Merchants International Inc., Cleveland.(Newscast) Magazine article from: Modern Casting; 9/1/2006; 23 words ; Disa SERF, Caudan, France, has appointed Equipment Merchants International Inc., Cleveland, as exclusive sales representative for the U.S. and Canada. Read more
	Senator Technology GmbH, Buchholz, Germany has acquired 100% of the shares of Disa Serf SAS.(Newscast) Magazine article from: Modern Casting; 3/1/2007; 17 words ; Senator Technology GmbH, Buchholz, Germany has acquired 100% of the shares of Disa Serf SAS, Lorient, France. Read more
	Capitalist seed: property titles for millions of Latin American peasants could make the difference between serf and citizen.(Tradetalk) Magazine article from: Latin Trade; 10/1/2003; 652 words ; ...Soto has urged governments to provide deeds to millions of peasants, arguing that land ownership makes the difference between serf and citizen. Capitalism doesn't work without property rights, de Soto, a freemarket champion, has said. The lack of legal ownership... Read more
	Serf or citizen: physician status and organizational structure. (Physician Executive Leadership). Magazine article from: Physician Executive; 7/1/1998; ; 700+ words ; ...the type of organization that physicians join will directly impact their professional influence and status as being more like a serf or more like a citizen. That may sound exaggerated but the difference in outcome can be vast. Autonomy Should the new health... Read more
	The new serfs. (Legal Services Corp., includes related article) Magazine article from: National Review; 8/5/1988; ; 700+ words ; THE NEW SERFS In 1970 Stephen Elias was a lawyer with a brand-new JD degree and a commitment to serving the poor; he went into legal services. For almost a decade, Elias worked in various legal-aid programs funded by the Legal Services Corporation. He challenged laws restricting welfare Read more
	Surety: the end of a shrinking trend: future brightens for remaining serf-insured companies.(Upfront: news, updates and other emerging strategies from around the world) Magazine article from: Risk & Insurance; 12/1/2004; ; 525 words ; Self-insured buyers of surety securities, faced with shrinking capacity in the bond market, face a world with fewer insurance options yet are being forced to post more collateral, according to surety market experts. Some companies are having to post bonds, or letters of credit, of more than four Read more
	Serfs of cinema: independent producers make film about lives of Hollywood assistants. Magazine article from: Los Angeles Business Journal; 3/22/1999; ; 700+ words ; When Budd Schulberg wrote What Makes Sammy Run six decades ago, little did he realize that his classic Hollywood character, Sammy Glick, would become a role model for future generations of young studio executives. (Schulberg's book has) become the bible, said Terry Keefe, a former Hollywood Read more

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Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses

	serf Book article from: The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English serf / sərf / • n. an agricultural laborer bound under the feudal system to work on his lord's estate. DERIVATIVES: serf·age / -fij / n. serf·dom / -dəm / n. Read more
	Serfdom Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History ...the slave is an object of the law, the serf is still a subject of the law. The classic...Peasant in Russia (pp. 6 – 8). Thus a serf is a peasant who (1) is bound to the land...to the state (such as it may be). Thus a serf bound to the land cannot be moved by any... Read more
	Shchepkin, Mikhail Semeonovich Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History ...1788 – 1863), an actor from the serf estate who revolutionized acting styles...productions in nearby Kursk. Though still a serf, he joined several provincial touring companies...bibliography Senelick, Laurence. (1984). Serf Actor: The Life and Art of Mikhail Shchepkin... Read more
	Redemption Payments Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Russian History ...PAYMENTS One of Alexander II's reforms was the emancipation of twenty million serfs in 1861. The Russian government paid former serf-holders for land that was then issued in allotments to the newly freed serfs. The peasants, however, were obligated to pay the... Read more
	serfdom Book article from: The Oxford Companion to Irish History ...As with other classes of tenants, the serf's status was determined by tenure rather...to plead in free courts. In theory the serf was a slave, subject to the arbitrary will...protected by the custom of the manor. The serf attended the manor court, where customary... Read more

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