Zounuk - A Szolnok Megyei Levéltár Évkönyve 1. (Szolnok, 1986)

TANULMÁNYOK - Nemes Lajos: Adatok Tiszafüred gazdasági és társadalmi életéhez (1687-1774) / 53. o.

LAJOS NEMES DATA TO THE ECONOMICAL AND SOCIAL LIFE OF TISZAFÜRED (1687-1774) The study examines the peculiar legal status of Tiszafüred in the given period in two parts: from the end of the 17th century until 1746, then from 1746 till the end of 18th century. According to the censuses, the village, having been liberated from under Turkish occupation, developed into the settlement with the largest population of the area in the given period. The number of villein-households increased two and a half times by 1736, as compared to the census in 1696. In the year 1701 the villeins of the village bought half of the settlements from the landowner, living in Transsylvania, together with half of the Kócs Puszta belonging to it. After the peace-treaty of Szatmár the colonization of the village, having been destroyed by Rabutin, began. Tiszafüred was the centre of the spontaneous ramblings of villeins at that time and became one of the most densely inhabited settlements of the escaped villeins. In this process, beside the natural potentials of the surroundings, the legal status of the village was the most important factor. Due to the sales contract of 1701, the independence of the village somewhat resembled that of free settlement of nobility, consisting of the following rights: disengaging the landowners' burdens, free election of judges and magistrates, free disposition above half of the confines of the area, and free possession of some of the minor royal "incomes" in practice, ie. of the upkeep of ferries, mills and slaughter-houses, of publican licence, and of the rights for fishing and hunting. During the three decades of its independence, Füred developed considerably in its population and finances. In 1733, however, former landowners won the lawsuit for regaining their holdings. The contract of 1701 was invalidated and the villeins, having been free de facto if not even legally, became "contractual" serfs under the landowner's authority. This change started the settlement towards the complete loss of its autonomy both economically and legally, and towards the more intensive manifestation of the expansion of landowners' authority in the sense of "second serfdom" in Tiszafüred, though with a delay of 32 years. In the succeeding period, until the socage law, there was a permanet but uneven fight going on between the landlords, supported by the lords of the county, and the serfs, the former aiming at the growth of their incomes and the latter at regaining part of their old rights. This resulted in the replacement of the completely encroached upon and practically inoperative contracts for socage-substitution (ie. transactions) by the socalled "urbárium"-s in 1764. The further legal status of Tiszafüred was determined by the socage law of Maria 67