While both are pre-capitalist systems, market-based economies are distinct from feudalism. Feudalism was an agrarian system organized around land tenure and a hierarchy of personal obligations between lords and serfs, with limited market activity and production geared towards subsistence. In contrast, pre-capitalist market economies featured independent producers (artisans, farmers) who owned their capital, produced for exchange, and participated in active markets. The key difference lies in the organizing principle: personal obligation and land tenure in feudalism versus market exchange and private ownership in the other.