论英国乡绅的形成

乡绅是英国封建社会中晚期出现的新兴资本主义生产关系的代表。乡绅就其构成成份虽然复杂 ,社会地位和财富的多寡有所不同 ,但是在以资本主义雇佣方式经营农牧业方面却是一致的。乡绅的形成历时三个多世纪 ,其形成过程也是封建社会的解体过程 ,它的形成表明英国封建社会内部已经孕育出了自我否定因素。乡绅的成长、壮大直接推动了英国社会变革的进程

On The Formation of English Gentry

Gentry was regarded as the representatives of newly rising capitalist production relation in the middle and late period of feudal society in Britain. Despite the complexity of their class components, different social status and unevenly distributed wealth, the gentry shared great similarities in farming and animal husbandry under the capitalist employment. It took more than three centuries for the gentry to form. This period just coincided the disintegration of the feudal society in Britain, which indicated that self-negative factor already existed in the feudal society itself. The gentry's growing and strengthening directly propelled the changing course of the English society.