Takács Péter (szerk.): A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 66. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)

A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából

Szatmár has such a special taste. This was also the reason why the demand for food products was minimal in the Upper Tisza region. The share of labour was barely detectable due to the scarcity of towns, the lack of manufactures, the low number of guilds and the popularity of home-crafts. Perhaps only smiths were indispensable. So there was no demand in the markets for agricultural raw materials.

The attitude of the landlords and the peasants to the land was different here than in Transdanubia. Money circulation connected with production for the market was rudimentary. Peasants were disinclined to pay charges and taxes. For the ninth or the eighth of the crop to be harvested, they could plough the allodial lands of the landowners free of state or county taxes and the ecclesiastic tithe. They could mow high quality hay for its half or third. They could easily and cheaply hire pastures for two-three years. So they did not strive to serve and pay state taxes for a half or a whole unit of a plot.

It should be added to the above said that the socage tenure regulation was finally accepted by the aristocracy even though Maria Theresa had it executed without the consent of the Diet. It was the Diet of 1790-1791 that confirmed its validity. However, it was only entered within the ordinary legislative procedure in the “corpus juris” that was binding to everyone in the Hungarian Kingdom by laws passed in the Diet of 1832-1836.

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