Fatuska János – Fülöp Éva Mária – ifj. Gyuszi László (szerk.): Annales Tataienses II. A mezőváros, mint uradalmi központ. Mecénás Közalapítvány. Tata, 2001.
Knézy Judit: Csurgó egykori mezőváros népcsoportjai és a Festetics uradalom
The ethnic groups of a market-town at the end of the 18th century Judit Knézy Among the market-towns in the Transdanubian region Csurgó had a unique position and an ethnographic aspect. It became one of the most significant manorial estates in the 18th century as it belonged to the Festetics family. As it was a part of the Festetics estates, the system of villein socage here had served Mária Terézia as an example for the issue of her socage decree in 1767, however the settlement had been one of the storm centres of the former rebellions. Since, on average, well-off serfs in perpetual bondage lived in the area, the landlords counted on the serfs' forced labour in the 1720s and 1740s. In the centre of the Csurgó domain, belonging to the Catholic Counts Festetics, the serfs were, however, mainly reformed by religion. They had stayed here during the Turkish wars, held out or resettled. The nation was obstinate and self - confident hardly tolerating the numerous forced labour, that is why they took a revolt. In a very unique way this market - town had developed fairly well under the pressure of the domain. It was near to the markets in Kanizsa, to the merchants, to the barter moving on the river Dráva and to the delivery possibilities. The domain made a contract on favourable terms with the tradesmen in order to make them settle here. After the foundation of „Georgikon" György Festetics II. - although on János Nagyváthy's advice — had set up a reformat boarding — school in Csurgó, and that act had made the town the educational centre of the country. From that time on the reformat diocese of Central - Somogy County and the gentry of Somogy, supporting culture, had been ready to help the town. Csurgó became the centre not only of the rational large - scale production but also the particular centre of collecting and spreading the peasants' production experience from the 18th to the middle of the 20th centuries. This essay studies the three decades after the serfs' uprisings, that is the time when in building up the domain's manor they reached the stage of entirely forming the building stock as well. The study answers the questions, what classes and groups of society had worked here, whether they were early citizens, settlers or craftsmen who had been told off here from the centre of the domain in Keszthely or from other estates and, what is more, what seasonal workers, day-labourers from the neighbourhood or from more remote areas had been here and what merchants', chapmen's route had crossed Csurgó. The representation cannot be restrected only on the above mentioned markettown since the people's work, who had lived here, might have been spread to the whole territory of the domain. 144
