Structural Changes in the Peasant Population of Poland in the 16th-18th Centuries

Abstract

The social and economic structure of the peasant population in Poland in the 16th-18th centuries was decisively shaped by the development of the demesne-corvée economy and the resulting changes in agricultural structure. Parallel to the deepening of serfdom and the expansion of the manorial demesne, the legal, occupational, and economic structure of the peasant masses underwent profound change. A comprehensive analysis of these structural changes and their phases has been lacking.
This article analyzes the essential features of structural changes in the Polish peasantry from the 16th to the 18th century: the legal-constitutional unification in the 15th century, differentiation by farm size and wealth, occupational specialization (Schultheißen, millers, craftsmen), and social stratification between corvée peasants and the free population, including the vagrant Losen.
The study draws on Polish urban registers and tax records, the census of 1789, works by Wyczański on the folwark, Baranowski on the peasant economy and the Losen, and comparative literature on the East-Central European demesne economy.
The analysis shows that the 15th century constituted a phase of integration during which the legal differences between peasants settled under ius polonicale and German law faded. In the 16th-17th centuries, economic differentiation deepened considerably: alongside the one-hide corvée peasants, smaller holdings and a broad stratum of landless cottagers, Häusler, and farm servants emerged. The Olender colonization in western Poland created hundreds of free settlements. The group of Losen grew parallel to the crisis of the corvée economy and increasing demand for wage labor. By the end of the 18th century, the basic model of the social structure of the peasantry that had formed in the 16th century remained essentially intact.