Kovacsics József: A történeti statisztika forrásai (Budapest, 1957)
Angol nyelvű összefoglaló
The third period begins with the census ordered by Joseph II (1785) and lasts up to the establishment of the official statistical service. The census of Joseph II is the first comprehensive statistical inquiry which throws light on the social and economic conditions of the country as a whole. From the last decades of this century onwards, statistical activity developed continually. In 1804—1805 a conscription of the whole population (with the exception of the nobility) was carried out. Such conscriptions were held repeatedly between 1804 and 1847. The last conscription of serfs took place in 1828. In 1848, the first constitutional Government of Hungary ordered a conscription of the population, as well as the collection of the main statistical data concerning housing and dwelling in the autonomous municipalities (the so-called Royal Towns) of the country. In order to establish the number of men suitable for military service, conscriptions were taking place in 1850—57 concerning the number and structure (sex, age, family status, nationality, religion) of the population, and also concerning the number of houses and dwellings. In addition to the review concerning the conscriptions carried out by public (State or municipal) authorities, the study also deals with the different canonical conscriptions such as Conscriptio Animarum, Canonica Visitatio, statutes of feudal services due to the Church, schematisms etc. The study touches upon the question of preparation and carrying out of conscriptions, from the tax conscriptions and the census of Joseph II, to the establishment of the Austrian General-Rechnungs-Direktorium and that of the KaiserlichKönigliche Direction der Administrativen Statistik and, finally, of the official statistical organisation. The conclusion of the study summarises the problems of elaboration and analysis of historico-statistical data. THE "DICAL" CONSCRIPTIONS. The so-called "dical" conscriptions (the classical Latin word "dica" — jurisdiction was used in mediaeval language to designate the process of assessing direct taxes) appear in connection with the assessment of State direct taxes in the 14th century. The earliest conscription material still in existence dates back to 1427. After 1526, with regard to the Turkish wars, the Hungarian Estates of the Realm voted at the diets a certain annual amount of war tax {subsidium). The basis of assessment of the State Tax prior to 15 th as well as that of the war tax was the serf's tenement (originally the gate of the tenement). Thus, the total sum of the tax was not fixed; only the amount to be imposed in the unit tenement (gate) was determined. Consequently, the total of the tax collection depended antirely on the number of serf's tenements (gates) which existed in the country. The amount of the tax was also independent from the number of serf families or persons living on the same tenement. Thus, as basis of taxation served from the beginning the productive capacity of the serf's tenement itself. The conscription fascicles which are now in possession of the National Record Office contain only the number of the tenements. They are, therefore, not suitable to establish the number of population. This is confirmed by the feudal conscriptions carried out by the landlords simultaneously with the State conscriptions; the study presents several examples in this field. The dical conscriptions themselves were carried out with various methods and their intensity varied in different years and counties. In some cases they contain the names of the serfs; sometimes they inform us about the number of craftsmen, artisans and the poor, living in the given community; others mention only the total number of the serf's tenements in the village. Also the reliability of the conscriptions is different. In order to secure the whole productive capacity of their serfs
