Polish Conception of Agrarian Transformations in the end of the Eighteenth Century. Theory and Practice

Abstract

The Polish conception of agrarian reform at the end of the 18th century has been studied mainly in relation to individual legislative acts rather than as a coherent program rooted in a specific vision of the transition from feudalism to capitalism. The relationship between Kołłątaj's theoretical framework and the actual reforms of 1791-1794 requires systematic analysis.

This article analyzes the Polish conception of agrarian transformations in 1791-1794, examining its theoretical foundations in the Polish way to capitalism, the role of Kołłątaj's vision of a mild revolution and the three constitutions, and the successive stages of realization through the Great Seym, the economic constitution, and the Kościuszko Insurrection.

The argument draws on the primary sources of the Great Seym (Materiały do Dziejów Sejmu Czteroletniego), the Połaniec Manifesto, the October Resolution of the Supreme National Council, Kołłątaj's On Laws and Legislation, and secondary literature by Dihm, Rostworowski, and Leśnodorski.

The analysis shows that the Polish way to capitalism differed fundamentally from the Prussian way by granting peasants inviolability of possessions and stressing the role of small-producers' peasant economy. Kołłątaj's concept of a mild revolution provided the theoretical basis: an accelerated evolutional transformation relying on the union between the new nobility and the middle classes, stressing national integration of peasants as a precondition for saving Polish statehood. In practice, the Great Seym's economic constitution introduced rent contracts and personal freedom for Crown land peasants; the Połaniec Manifesto extended these principles and reduced serf labor by 25-50%; and the October Resolution of 1794 granted full land rights to peasants who served in the Insurrection. The defeat of the Insurrection prevented full realization of these gains.