Peasant 'Freedom' and 'Ownership' in Polish Reform Conceptions during the Eighteenth Century. Part II

• Authors: Michalski J.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article focuses attention on an analysis of the concepts of peasant 'freedom' and 'ownership', used at the time. Both those terms are frequently encountered, particularly in statements criticising the status of the 'servile' peasants deprived of protected 'ownership'. 'Servitude' was comprehended not as serfdom, but as its most acute symptoms, i. e. unlimited subjection vis a vis the lords, including the ascription of the peasants and their offspring to the land, the absence of protection by the public authorities, and the lack of access to the state court system. On the other hand, 'freedom' was comprehended not necessarily as the abolition of the aforementioned ascription, but as a partial loosening of the bonds and as the unhampered right of the peasant sons to decide about their fate, restrictions of the patrimonial court system, particularly as regards the gravest penal cases, the expansion of the rural self-government, and state protection for the peasants. The postulate of 'freedom' never signified even the least political rights. 'Freedom' was also conceived as a permanent regulation of peasant obligations towards the lords proportionately to the owned land. Regulation was also envisaged as a protection of 'freedom', offering the peasants the certainty that part of their produce would remain in their possession and not be approximated due to the lord's arbitrary decisions. The heart of the matter concerned the immunity of peasant revenues obtained from their plots. Moreover, the process of granting the peasants 'freedom' was perceived as a guarantee of a permanent lease of their plots with the right of bequeathing them to their heirs, as well as the right to alienation, albeit only with the consent of the lords. Only a few statements made at the time of the Four Years' Seym include fragments which may be interpreted as postulates calling for full ownership. The reformers basically represented a stand claiming that land was the property of the lords. Despite its rather limited contents the reform programme was sometimes depicted in a highly exaggerated form. The rather constrained changes in the position of the peasants were frequently portrayed as steps which opened up perspectives of great prosperity for the peasantry, the lords and the whole country. Overwhelming gentry opinion treated all postulates of such changes as a threat of liberty for the peasants, which would topple the existing socioeconomic system and facilitate the introduction of royal absolutum dominium. At the time of the Duchy of Warsaw and the constitutional Kingdom of Poland the programme of peasant reforms never exceeded the framework delineated in the preceding century. There were no calls for enfranchisement, and the abolition of the ascription of the peasantry to the land, introduced by Napoleon, was sharply criticised.

Keywords

EN

FOUR YEARS' SEYM; HISTORY OF 18TH CENTURY; PEASANT REFORM

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historyczny
• Year: 2004
• Volume: 111
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 69-103
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Michalski J.

• J. Michalski, Instytut Historii PAN, ul. Rynek Starego Miasta 29/31, 00-272 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

04PLAAAA0014351