Gyulai Éva - Viga Gyula (szerk.): Történet - muzeológia : Tanulmányok a múzeumi tudományok köréből a 60 éves Veres László tiszteletére (Miskolc, 2010)

GAZDASÁGTÖRTÉNET - Csíki Tamás: Egy nagybirtok konvenciói a két világháború között - cselédbérek a gödöllői koronauradalomban

Conventions of a large estate in the interwar period Servant wages in the royal estate at Gödöllő The study examines the servants working on the royal estate of Gödöllő from a single perspective: the servants' wages. The introduction discusses the Servant Act of 1907 and the wage labour relations as defined by the legal interpretations of the interwar period, which also incorporated elements of a contractual relation and an acknowledgement of the landowners' power. Presented as part of the study are the differentiation and changes in cash wages, dues in kind and other allowances (based on records from 1920, 1925 and 1932), which expressed the hierarchy between the farm-hands, as well as the vertical system of labour organisation and the subordination relations determining the individual's position in this hierarchy. The various dues and allowances, such as the milk and barley allowance for child rearing, expressed the state's social policy to some extent. A separate section is devoted to the discourses on wages between the estate and the Ministry of Agriculture acting as the supervising authority, which also record the different interpretations of the servants' living conditions. The question of the servants' wages was an economic issue for the macro-power in the 1920s, and was subordinate to the rationale of profitability following the re-organisation of the state estate, as a consequence of which all initiatives for wage rises were rigidly rejected. The estate stewards viewed the convention as a means for ensuring the stability of the estate's production and labour organisation: moreover, their arguments reflect a paternalist concern for the welfare of their employees, even if this concern did not extend beyond basic needs, i.e. provisions of food and clothing. The final section covers the housing conditions, as well as the standards and plans prepared in the late 1930s, indicating the additional considerations in the regulation of the servants' life. Tamás Csíki 445