Kovacsics József: A történeti statisztika forrásai (Budapest, 1957)

Angol nyelvű összefoglaló

highest Hungarian official, the deputy of the King) in order to divide among themselves the total amount of tax voted by the Estates of the Realm. For this reason, the delegates of the assembly established for each county and town the number of the "palatinal portae". (The "palatinal porta" was a computation unit representing the average tax-paying capacity of a whole tenement.) The total amount of the tax to be paid by the country had to be divided by the total number of "palatinal portae". On this basis, the amount of tax was calculated for every county and town. Then, the counties and towns themselves conscribed the actual number of serfs, the extent of land cultivated by them, the number of their live-stock and the quantity of crops harvested in order to establish the number of "dicae". (In this connection, the word "dica" was used to denominate the key-numbers serving to compute the tax of the serfs' farmsteads.) The tax amount to be paid by the county or town as a whole was then divided by the total number of "dicae" of the county or town in question, and finally the taxes of the individual serfs' farmsteads were established. Thus, the dical conscriptions are not suitable to compute the number of the population, but we may, with the help of their material, draw a picture of the relative changes whick took place in the population of various regions, counties, districts, estates and villages. In addition, they serve as sources for investigations concerning the structure of nobility (big, middle and small landowners), as well as the process of dismembering of sessions, and the changes in the productive capacity of the serfs. THE TITHE LISTS AS SOURCES FOR HISTORICAL STATISTICS. The tithe (disme, décima) was one of the most onerous burdens of the serfs. Following the law of Stephen the First (997—1038) they were obliged to deliver the tenth of their production to the Church; by the law of Louis the First (1341—1381) the ninth of their production was due to the landlord (Article VI. of 1351). This study is dealing with the tithe, i. e. the tenth of the production which had to be delivered to the Church. , In the first place, it were the serfs, provided with a tenement and cultivating it, who had to deliver the tithe. But the same obligation encumbered anybody who was farming land which fell under feudal service, except the herdsmen of the privileged "vlach" type. The cottars, who had no sown land of their own, paid the socalled "Christian money" {pecunia christianitatis); the share-croppers' shares also fell under the tithe, but if the share was less than ten shocks they could commute it with the "sickle money" (pecunia falcis). A commutation money was paid also by the horseherds, cowsmen, swineherds employed by the communities, and also by millers, village mayors and midwives. The employees of the landlord — if they had some sown land of their own — paid as commutation the so-called "whip money", but if their harvest exceeded ten shocks, they were bound to deliver the tenth of the surplus in natura. Tithable were: all sorts of cereals, sheep, goats, hens, bees, wine, millet, lentils, peas, flax, hemp, turnips, onions, cabbages, broom-corn and — after their introduction — also maize, potatoes, tobacco etc. The right of tithe-collecting belonged to the county bishop; but the bishops early put out this right on lease. The methods of tithe-collecting in the 16—18th centuries were based — with a few exceptions — on Article XXIX. of 1500. Following this the serf had first to detach the ninth part of his whole produce which was due to the landlord; the tithe (tenth) was to be reckoned after what was left. Although concerning the Church es-