Serfdom ended in Russia in 1863. For western Europe I don't know exactly, because if you find a spot that still had serfs in 1600, then wiki would be right. But it wasn't over in France as early as 1300. Serfdom had powerful protections for the poor. It guaranteed them access to one source of lordly justice, it barred other neighboring lords from intruding on their lives-- you couldn't just rob a village of the gentes ducem without answering to the Duke for messing with his people, and screwing with the gentes regem meant a national war with the King and whatever nobles wanted to loot you. Also, if the gentes ducem came across a nice meadow and a rich forest and decided to set up a village there, that meant the Duke had rights to that wealth too--so the Duke loved it if his serfs went out and beat the crap out of freeholders and took their land. And who could a freeholder complain to? Complain to the King about how the Duke was acting? The King needed to keep the Duke happy, that's how you stay King. Economics wasn't the only factor (silly Annalist) the degree of violence and disorder promoted a system of protection and guarantees of farmland, and when order and tranquility was more present, the system wasn't as useful to lord or serf.
The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.
