Manoralism was a system that described economic and political relations between landlords and ther peasant laborers during the Middle Ages. It involved a heirarchy of reciprocal obligations that exchanged labor or rents for access to land. Most of the peasant farmers were serfs who lived on self-sufficient agricultural estates, called manors.

1. Demesne, the part directly controlled by the lord and used for the benefit of his household and dependents;

2. Dependent holdings carrying the obligation that the peasant household supply the lord with specified labour services or a part of its output , subject to the custom attached to the holding; and

3. Free peasant land, without such obligation but otherwise subject to manorial jurisdiction and custom, and owing money rent fixed at the time of the lease.