Abstract

As a form of contracting services for public purposes public procurement was present in legal systems or played a major role in economic relations only under the conditions of broadly conceived economic freedom and prevalent private ownership. Moreover, public authorities could not be self-sustaining nor could it refrain on a major scale to administrative measure of coercion in order to acquire necessary goods and services. In the early Middle Ages, as a result of profound civilizational regression combined with the collapse of the entire economic and political system (except Byzantium), public procurement as presented above practically disappeared from the economic and legal systems of Europe. They were unknown to the barbaric tribes settling the territories of the Empire, which were just getting out of the tribal setup. They were absent in model feudal relations based on vassalage and commodity based economy. Doctrinally, they should be excluded from the feudal lord-liege, sovereign-vassal relations and the prevailing system of fiefdom. It were the social and economic transformation taking place in the latter half of the Middle Ages that led to the slow rebirth of public contracts in individual European countries. Since then the importance, value, number, and in consequence also regulations of public procurement have been growing until today - save for transitional regresses caused by various factor, such as periodical collapses of public institutions or imposition of a socialist system.