Takács Péter (szerk.): A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából - A nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum kiadványai 66. (Nyíregyháza, 2010)

A jobbágylét dokumentumai az úrbérrendezés kori Szatmár vármegye Nyíri járásából

the Wesselényi conspiracy, the Kuruc fights led by Thököly and Rákóczy, the Tartarian invasion in 1717, which devastated people and draught animals, and the pestilence in 1739^43. The Kraszna, the Szamos and the Tisza often more than once inundated the unregulated lands. The uncontrolled, unruly Kraszna turned a territory 130-140 thousand holds, the larger part of the fields of several villages into a swamp. The portal census of 1549 published by Ferenc Maksay tells a lot about the settlements of the district: on the territory of the Nyír district, the number of the households was the same or even more than at the time of the socage tenure regulation in 1772-1775. The number of the able-bodied population did not increase in this region during two hundred and twenty-thirty years.

At the portal census in 1549, 706 tax unit households were registered in the Nyír district. Four farming villain families lived in a “household” of a tax unit. This supposes the existence of 2824 draught powers to be put before the plough. According to the commonly accepted and applied calculation, the 2824 whole-plough farmers (with four or six oxen) matched 2824 households, villain farms of whole unit of plot at the time of the socage tenure regulation. During the socage regulation carried out in the same villages in 1772-1775, the socage regulation commissioners registered 2545 villain households. The poor people, the serfs who were dependent of the landlord but did not have draught powers, were separately registered in 1549: 975 families of this category were counted. In 1772-1775, 852 cottagers (households without draught power) were found in the examined 50 villages. In 1549, 150 serfs were counted, while 279 bordars (serfs without a house) were registered at the socage tenure regulation. The comparable data evidence that the 220 years that passed from 1549 to 1772-1775 was a barren period in the Nyír district. Neither the number of the population nor the economy showed growth. Life was at a standstill or rather regressed in 220 years.

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In the last third of the 18th century, neither the population growth nor the markets that could be reached with contemporary means of transport motivated the inhabitants of the Nyír district to produce market goods. The inhabitants were self-supporting. It meant that they produced everything for themselves apart from a few articles, tools necessary for subsistence and farming. This can be deduced from the answers given to the nine principal questions at the socage tenure regulation. Except for a couple of settlements, nobody complained about the lack of arable lands. Where there were few fields because of the geographical endowments, people could plough on the allodium of the landlord in the neighbouring village. More people complained about the lack of pastures and meadows. However, everyone could rent pasture and buy hay within a region of 3-4 miles. Only perhaps the hay had to be transported home on an unbelievably rough road. Except for a few villages where the territory was small or many animals were kept, three-course cultivation was in fashion in most of the villages. Wheat and rye were equally cultivated, but double crop (măslin crop, mixture of rye and wheat) was also sowed in most of the villages. In the spring field, oat, some barley and legumes (peas and lentils) were cultivated. It was not mentioned but buckwheat spelt, spring wheat and millet were also grown. The latter ones had a short breeding season so they were sowed in large quantities when the ground water caused by floods and the melting snow disappeared late from the fields. In the 1760’s and

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