Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
János Ugrai: „THE PERIOD OF NATIONAL ADVANCEMENT” 1777-1849 - The College and its environment - the manor farming of the College
91 The appraisal of this system began to undergo radical change in this particular period. Until the end of the 18th century, the employing of students was considered advantageous in terms of both economic and ethical considerations. The youth would learn to work responsibly and the accrued income would ease their financial difficulties; for the school, this arrangement ensured an inexpensive workforce. Nevertheless, by the beginning of the 19th century, notions had begun to change and criticism of both aspects appeared. It was now felt that the students involved could not focus sufficiently on their studies and various difficulties also arose in the possibilities of their disciplining. It was true that the labour of the frequently changing and unskilled youth was financially less costly but it was also less efficient and done with less responsibility and thus, in the final analysis, detrimental to the College. For precisely these reasons were the offices of the provisor (college manager) and the assistant lay officer established. Both positions were restricted to adults. The provisor was the underling of the senior so he had to collaborate with the students. The assistant lay officer, on the other hand, supervised the work done by the youth and served as somewhat of an intermediary between the senior and the chief lay officer. Despite the extensive battles fought over this issue, the total elimination of student labour did not succeed. It is not by chance that this push for change gave rise to strong resistance by the students for it was clear to them that their traditional rights, which extended to every aspect of school life and were exceptionally broad, would only remain intact as long as the students were indispensable to the operation of the institution. This manor-like mode of economic operation was thus the source of much dissension and, unfortunately, yielded less and less income from year to year. The worsening balances were a symptom of not only the demise of the traditional style of agricultural management but also of the heated squabbles over student labor. The absence of the needed hinterland support for operations forced the institution to seek a new, more modern solution, given that the economic activity of the first half of the 19th century - which was basically foreign to the educational profile of the institution - could, at best, be modified but by no means dispensed with. The most suitable shift in activity proved to be towards the extending of credit. Amounts received through donations and from other sources were not spent but lent out at a legal rate of six percent annual interest and only the interest accrued from the continuously augmenting base capital was used to cover operational costs. A dynamic expansion of financial activity ensued. In 1801, this activity provided one sixth of the College’s entire annual income; by 1814, it provided one quarter of the annual income and, by 1826, it provided half of the income. This translated into numerous advantages for the College, these including planification, facility in monitoring, protection against the vicissitudes of weather and the fluctuations in demand and supply, and, last but not least, significantly less labor requirements. With its own diversified economic activity, the College in Sárospatak assumed the role of economic motor to the region. This it had not been able to achieve while mired in the former traditional forms of agricultural-related activity. In terms of its character and method of operation, the College’s role in the economies of Patak and Hegyalja was very similar to other, mostly agroproduction-based “plants”. It differed from these, at most, in dimension and in
