Balázs György (szerk.): The abolition of serfdom and its impact on rural culture, Guide to the Exhibition Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Revolution and War if Independence of 1848-49 (Budapest-Szentendre, Museum of Hungarian Agriculture-Hungarian Open-Air Museum, 1998.)

FROM THE URB ARIAL PATENT OF MARIA THERESA TO THE REFORM DIETS Due to the devastations of the long Turkish occupation and Rákóczi's war of independence, the eighteenth century was a period of reconstruction in Hungary. The government and several landlords made efforts to settle new inhabitants on the devastated and depopulated areas. Tax allowances drew a great number of Germans, Serbs, Rumanians, and settlers belonging to other ethnic groups to the country. From the middle of the century onwards, Maria Theresa (1740-80) and her son Joseph II (1780-90), the enlightened monarchs of the Habsburg dynasty, did their best to increase the economic performance of their empire, including Hungary. In 1767, Maria Theresa issued an urbarial patent (Urbárium) aimed at reguMaria Therese (1740-1780) ladngamoum Qf servjce

s and obligations the serfs and cotters were supposed to render to their landlords. The peasantry, constituting the vast majority of the Hungarian society, were namely holding their plots in tenure, as feudal law provided that only noblemen were entitled to own land. Serfs and cotters were supposed to pay rent for their tenure in kind, money, and labour

, the quantity of which differed from estate to estate. The landlords were free to raise the duties whenever they wanted. The Urbarial Patent aimed at restricting the 4