La campagne polonaise dans le cadre des transformations du marché des 16e-17e siècles. L'économie de la starostie de Korczyn 1500-1660 [Polish Countryside in the Context of Market Transformations of the 16th-17th Centuries. The Economy of the Starosty of Korczyn 1500-1660]

Abstract

Polish agrarian studies of the 16th and 17th centuries long focused on the internal dynamics of the corvee estate system, without sufficiently accounting for the role of the market in the transformation of rural economy. The link between grain market conditions and the management of royal estates remained particularly underexplored.
This article aims to demonstrate, through the case study of the royal starosty of Korczyn (1500-1660), how fluctuations in the Polish grain market shaped the development and decline of the noble estate economy.
The research draws on rich archival sources: inventories, royal estate inspections, and account books of the starosty preserved at the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, as well as customs registers from Wloclawek documenting grain shipments to Gdansk.
The analysis reveals a close correlation between market conditions at Krakow's grain market and the profitability of the starosty. During the favorable period of the 16th century (until approximately 1580), the estate economy expanded actively – cultivated areas grew, cereal production increased, and commercialization towards Gdansk intensified. Faced with deteriorating market conditions in the 17th century, the starosty responded through extensification – establishing new estates, intensifying peasant corvee labor (rising from 1.45 days/week in 1533-1538 to 2.54 days around 1660) – and progressively shifting production costs onto the peasantry. This process, observable across other Polish estates of the period, reflects the conscious adaptation of estate managers to market conditions and foreshadows the general collapse of Polish rural economy following the Swedish Wars.