Lukács László (szerk.): Märkte und Warenaustausch im Pannonischen Raum - István Király Múzeum közelményei. A. sorozat 28. (Székesfehérvár, 1988)

Marta Sigmundová - Ján Botík: Economic Diaries as a Source of Study of the Exhange of Goods in a Peasant Environment

roofers (later tilers, in the past centuries so-called "2up£iari"- i.e. specialists in covering roofs with straw and reed), furnace-men, smearers (smearing with mud) and painters - cooperated in the construction of the house. All these specialized craftsmen's works were paid for in both cases, only Juraj Kovái payed for bricklayer' s work lay products in kind (wheat).

It was of some interest to find out that the agricultural products of the plant and animal production, were not only a source of income but were also purchased, while the same products were often sold and purchased at the same time. E.g., Juraj Kovái had in the same year sold a pair of oxen (for 500 forints) and bought two bullocks (for 125 forints). This transaction represents the only financial profit, evidently as another contribution to the farmstead. There could be a similar motivation for the purchase of a larger quantity of vine plants that should have been used for the rejuvenation of his vineyard (3.600 plants). Within the same year he bought 130 cabbage heads for winter consumption. Amongst the foodstuffs he used to buy two or three pounds of beef per month from his butcher.

Jan Hu?ok had bought only feeding stuff from agricultural products. One can often find records of the purchase of brans, less often of clover, straw, potatoes, beet, maze, and rape. Though within the subsequent year he had sold brandy for 220 dinars, he bought it later in a much greater amount reaching 1 998 dinars. He bought wine for 305 dinars in the same year. Evindently, he had to replenish his own supplies, due to higher consumption related to the work of the house renovation.

In the concluding part of our article we attempt to characterize the contribution of farmer's economic records for-knowing the market-commercial relationship in the traditional peasant environment. In our opinion, it may be seen particularly in the possibilities of making some conclusions more precise, especially those preserved so far in ethnographic and agrarian historical works. Here, we often come across a statement that the most fundamental features of the traditional way of peasant farming are represented by small-scale and semi in-kind and even fully in-kind character. This indicates that a peasant family was characterized by working for themselves, i.e. in a family or for a family within which almost everything had been produced as well as consumed.The peasant family was producing from foodstuffs, garments, dwelling construction, working tools as well as various articles for household use alone, mostly for their own needs. As it was more or less self-sufficient, its link with the surrounding world was minimal. Its links with the market were also restricted as the manufacture was not very developed. There was only a small assortment of articles which were bought by the family.

It is evident that the outlined trends towards self-sufficiency and selfsupply in the small-scale mode of peasant farming had been manifested already under early feudalism,continuing till the period of late capitalism.

This does not, however, mean that manufacturai production and the exchange of goods were functioning in the agrarian environment only within the above modes. It can be documented by conditions in the analyzed farmsteads of Juraj KováS and Ján Huîfok. The farming records of both authors confirm that the overall character and extent of the exchange of goods were determined by a number of different factors. Among them one can mention in particular the achieved level of the socio-economic development of society. But there are also some other factors such as the property extent of a peasant holding, consequently also the quantity of the surplus produced within a peasant fa-170