Lukács László (szerk.): Märkte und Warenaustausch im Pannonischen Raum - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 28. (Székesfehérvár, 1988)
Marta Sigmundová - Ján Botík: Economic Diaries as a Source of Study of the Exhange of Goods in a Peasant Environment
ECONOMIC DIARIES AS A SOURCE OF STUDY OF THE EXCHANGE OF GOODS IN A PEASANT ENVIRONMENT Marta Sigmundová - Ján Botik, Bratislava The article draws on economic diaries and chronicler's records kept by the farmers Juraj Kováíí from the village of Mezcberény in Hungary and Ján Hucok from Aradac village in Yugoslavia. Both localities are geographically located within the territory of the Great Hungarian Plain. Mezőberény is situated 20 km from a Hungarian district seat, Békéscsaba, and Aradac 7 km from a local town, Zrenjanin. In both localities we may find a marked representation of the Slovak national group which had settled here during the 18th century in connection with colonizing these regions after the Turks were expelled from Hungary. The written records of Juraj Kováé cover 1855-1863 and those of Ján HuSok 1912-1962. The information from one year per author has been chosen for our analysis. This period is considered to be sufficiently representative for obtaining a picture of the periodically repeated incomes and expenses of a peasant's farmstead. From Juraj KováS's records we chose the year 1856 and from those of Ján Hucok, 1930. The choice of these years was motivated by the fact that in both cases the current annual expenses were combined with the expenses resulting from the construction of the house. The selected years capture, at the same time, various stages in the development of capitalism in the traditional agrarian environment. In 1856 Juraj Kovác owned half a holding which in Mazéherény represented 28 Hungarian "holds" (approx.11 hectares). In addition, he cultivated a leased area, the extent of which could not be precisely determined. In 1856, his household consisted of his wife, his son John with his wife Dora and two children of pre-school age as well as two unmarried daughters Elena and Jutka and a younger son Juraj. In 1930 Ján Huïok owned 51.5 "lances" of land (approx.30 hectares). His household consisted of six persons in that year: Ján IHuïok and his wife, Anka and Jankó their unmarried children and both parents of Ján Hucok. It may be stated that under the observed geographic, economic and social conditions, the farms specified ranked among the higher property and social stratum of the peasant population. It can be characterized by a small-scale way of farming whose basic trait is represented by self-supply and economic selfsufficiency. In spite of this fact, in farms of this property category a sufficient surplus was obtained to permit various forms of exchange of goods. A decisive factor in bringing about the exchange of goods was represented by the economic incomes of a peasant family. Their specification is presented in Tables 1 and 2.Table 1 shows that in both farms the most fundamental item of income was formed by the products of plant and animal production. However , there are more or less marked differences in the mutual proportions of 167
