Petercsák Tivadar: Nemesi és paraszti közbirtokosságok Heves Megyében (XVIII-XX. század) - Studia Agriensia 23. (Eger, 2003)
NOBLE AND PEASANT JOINT TENANTRY IN HEVES COUNTY (18th-20th CENTURY)
Tivadar Petercsák NOBLE AND PEASANT JOINT TENANTRY IN HEVES COUNTY (18th-20th CENTURY) The social and political changes which took place in Hungary during the final decade of the 20th century brought with them the redevelopment and consolidation of self-government systems with traditions going back a thousand years. Indeed, the past practices and experience of the local agricultural collectives operating on a self-governing basis could prove helpful in the creation of the new organisational structures necessitated by the changes currently going on in agriculture. Local agricultural collectives usually took the form of joint tenantries (Hung.: közbirtokosság), a form of land ownership which can be traced back to medieval commonage (Hung. : földközösség). With the benefit of archive documents, historical and ethnographical studies and the results of his own ethnographical research the author explores the joint tenantries of one particular Hungarian county, Heves County, starting with their origins in feudal society, before describing the various formations which existed in the ever more regulated age which preceded agricultural collectivisation. The first chapter gives an overview of the whole country addressing the historical questions affecting village agricultural collectives whilst examining the legal perameters in which they existed. Hungarian socioeconomic relations, as well as those royal decrees and statutes which were enacted from the beginning of the 18th century, regulated the use of common land boundaries, noble joint tenantries, the special Szekler village communities, ethnic groups enjoying special privileges on the Great Plain, the one-time peasants participating in joint tenantries from the end of the 19th century and the work of woodland and pasturage collectives. Whilst introducing legislation designed to modernise the way woodland and pastures were both used and protected, the state aimed to satisfy the owners’ individual interests within the framework of the collective. Whilst outlining these regulations the author also gives 291
