Page 243 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 243
intangible and material evidence on the slovenian peasant economy ...
ber”), while the feudal landlord had possessed the manor in the form of
a “pledge” (Pfandinhaber) that anyway gave him the right to administer
the ownership rights in practice. Nevertheless the peasants could sell and
transfer their land and farmsteads, the situation being similar to that in
Western Bohemia (Velková 2012, 103). We may say that the kind of owner-
ship and the legal object of the transfers was not the full property (domini-
um directum) of the land, but rather the “tenancy” (dominium utile).
The last consideration regards the availability of written documents
allowing an insight into the peasant economy. From what we have learned
about the existence and use of the oral custom, we may expect to find rare
records of real-estate transactions until the first half of the 17th century, at
least in the Devin manor we’re observing. Here the manorial administra-
tion’s efforts to get and keep record of transfers between peasants (and ex-
tract dues from them) can be traced back to the first decades of the 17th cen-
tury, while in other areas that might have been an even later ambition. In
any case this was a rather long process of gaining control over peasant re-
al-estate transfers (and over the legal status of land, at the same time), while
both the peasant practices and the official regulations still need to be re-
searched more in depth.
Let us now turn to the other end of our time span in the mid-18th cen-
tury, when written records of real estate transfers are preserved in a consid-
erable series and constitute our quantitative (‘material’) evidence.
3. The real-estate transfer records (around 1750)
By the mid-18th century real estate transfers between peasants were registe-
red by the Devin manorial administration, since, in its archive a series of
records is preserved, covering the years between 1747 and 1758. It is not yet
clear whether these serial registrations started at the date of the earliest pre-
served records. Moreover, there are two kinds of registration: one series re-
gards more precisely the real-estate valuation operations, meant to establi-
sh the prices of the purchased goods, while the second series brings more
information about the financial and legal aspects of the transfers. The two
series do not cover the same time span but for a couple of years. By com-
paring the two series of records one may notice that the registered trans-
fers are not completely the same. Furthermore, based on some notes and
comments to single records, one may observe that not all purchases, sa-
les and other transfers were registered immediately after the deal was con-
cluded. In many cases some time elapsed and even the payments were of-
241
ber”), while the feudal landlord had possessed the manor in the form of
a “pledge” (Pfandinhaber) that anyway gave him the right to administer
the ownership rights in practice. Nevertheless the peasants could sell and
transfer their land and farmsteads, the situation being similar to that in
Western Bohemia (Velková 2012, 103). We may say that the kind of owner-
ship and the legal object of the transfers was not the full property (domini-
um directum) of the land, but rather the “tenancy” (dominium utile).
The last consideration regards the availability of written documents
allowing an insight into the peasant economy. From what we have learned
about the existence and use of the oral custom, we may expect to find rare
records of real-estate transactions until the first half of the 17th century, at
least in the Devin manor we’re observing. Here the manorial administra-
tion’s efforts to get and keep record of transfers between peasants (and ex-
tract dues from them) can be traced back to the first decades of the 17th cen-
tury, while in other areas that might have been an even later ambition. In
any case this was a rather long process of gaining control over peasant re-
al-estate transfers (and over the legal status of land, at the same time), while
both the peasant practices and the official regulations still need to be re-
searched more in depth.
Let us now turn to the other end of our time span in the mid-18th cen-
tury, when written records of real estate transfers are preserved in a consid-
erable series and constitute our quantitative (‘material’) evidence.
3. The real-estate transfer records (around 1750)
By the mid-18th century real estate transfers between peasants were registe-
red by the Devin manorial administration, since, in its archive a series of
records is preserved, covering the years between 1747 and 1758. It is not yet
clear whether these serial registrations started at the date of the earliest pre-
served records. Moreover, there are two kinds of registration: one series re-
gards more precisely the real-estate valuation operations, meant to establi-
sh the prices of the purchased goods, while the second series brings more
information about the financial and legal aspects of the transfers. The two
series do not cover the same time span but for a couple of years. By com-
paring the two series of records one may notice that the registered trans-
fers are not completely the same. Furthermore, based on some notes and
comments to single records, one may observe that not all purchases, sa-
les and other transfers were registered immediately after the deal was con-
cluded. In many cases some time elapsed and even the payments were of-
241
