Original scientific paper

Summary

Nada Klaić

Abstract

An attempt at giving light to some economic problems of those times is made in this contribution, issued incidentally as a report on feudal formations in Croatia and contained in the book by Dr. N. Vučo, The Economic History of the People of F. N. R. J. to World War I.
Feudal relations in mediaeval Slavonia, with special referrence to the problems of serfdom and villeinage are discussed in the first chapter. The author states that serfs were not bound to the property throughout the time of feudal formation; their transfer was prevented by law only from 1514 till 1538. With the decay of dependent householding and the advent of monetary-goods relations in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries the serfs' circumstances of living changed somewhat to an easier mode. The transfer to monetary revenue is first recognized on the property of the king (beginning of XIIth century), to follow at a much latter date on the property of the Church XIIIth century). With the disintegration of the dependent households compulsory work is decreased until it implies only 6-12 days of work a year.
The author further draws attention to the use of the term servus in mediaeval sources, denoting a slave sold by force as well as a serf or a servant. It is demonstrated by the example of the serfs belonging to the Kaptol of Zagreb that their conditions had undergone a marked change to the better by the XIVth century owing to the arrival of new settlers, so that the middle of the century sees the serfs being of equal status as the rest of the villeins.
In the second chapter the problem of development of towns in mediaeval Slavonia is treated, and their foundation is dated by the author as taking place in the beginning of the XIIth century. This claim is contrary to the current belief that the building of towns took place only after the Tatar invasion in 1242. The former opinion is based on the assumption that the growth of the towns is primarily an economic process which probably developed scores of years before the towns obtained their privileges. In the establishing of towns in Slavonia and Hungary, an important part was played by the hospites, strangers, who maintained inviolate the rights they had brought along, transmitting them also to the native inhabitants settling in their close vicinity.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

327528

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/327528

Publication date:

1.6.1951.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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