Some Remarks on Rental System in Southern Poland

Abstract

This article examines the forms and evolution of feudal rent in southern Poland (Little Poland) towards the end of the eighteenth century, with the aim of using rental systems as indicators of peasant participation in the commodities market and of the degree of social differentiation within the peasantry. The study draws on archival research covering 230 crown villages in Poland, specifically in the Province of Cracow, supplemented by calculations of the rental burden on peasant farms and data on farm size distribution.
The article shows that in 66 per cent of the examined crown villages the forms of feudal obligation were differentiated, with a marked geographical gradient: rental systems were more prevalent in the mountainous south, where conditions for grain cultivation were less favourable but animal husbandry, home industry, and trade offered alternative sources of peasant income. The author distinguishes between permanent rentals based on long-term contracts and fluctuating annual conversions of villein service, the latter giving manorial lords greater flexibility in labour management.
The estimated rental burden consumed 22-30 per cent of net peasant income after deductions for seed and tithes. Given that a farm of at least 8.5 hectares was needed to sustain a peasant family including feudal obligations, and that farms in Little Poland were predominantly small and fragmented, the great majority of peasant households could not generate a marketable grain surplus. Peasant revenue for rent payments had to be derived from animal husbandry, craft production, transport, and trade.
In rental villages the process of peasant social stratification was accelerating, with a small group of prosperous peasants employing hired labour emerging alongside a rapidly growing landless population, displaying features anticipating capitalist differentiation. Research on feudal rent and its evolution thus provides indices for measuring peasant participation in market relations under the manorial and villein-service economy.