Káldy–Nagy Gyula: A budai szandzsák 1546–1590. évi összeírásai. Demográfiai és gazdaságtörténeti adatok - Pest Megye Múltjából 6. (Budapest, 1985)
Introduction
worth looking into. The amount of anticipated fines may also be a good point of reference, as this is the area where the census taker could really have a free hand- The demographic data, i.e. the changes in population figures, serve as good yardsticks for measuring the strictness of the tax and tenth levying and the endurance of the population. The reliability of the data gathering can be well tested by matching the number of sheep listed in the registrations above the names of inhabitants with the per head quantity of the lamb tenth. There are glaring examples of such non-correspondence: in 1562, when the inhabitants of the town of Kecskemét were registered, sixty lambs were listed as comprising the tenth, while the roster (according to our calculation) indicated 10,693 head of sheep to belong to 41 sheep farmers. This suggests that here the census taker was lenient and partial in levying other financial obligations as well. However, if we keep all this in mind, the censuses contain a great deal of valuable data for evaluation. As compared to other source materials written in other than the Turkish language, the sanjak censuses are particularly valuable in that they permit the simultaneous examination of questions on a much broader scale, as they cover several hundred settlements. 17 For example, we can learn from them how many mills operated at a given time in the Pest-PilisSolt and Kiskun county of old, and how far the residents had to travel to get to them. The declining or increasing number of existing mills may in itself be a valuable indicator in the detailed study of the economy of a larger area. Last but not least, the censuses provide valuable information on how many settlements of the large county of Pest-Pilis-Solt and Kiskun were deserted, and how many of them were repopulated, 18 or on how the lifestyle and the demography of the population changed within a little over half a century. * In the course of processing this data, we used or quoted the following sources in identifying the various place names: J. Lipszky, Repertórium locorum objectorumque in XII. tabulis mappae regnorum Hungáriáé, . . . Budae 1808. L. Nagy, Notitiae regni Hungáriáé, Budae 1828. D. Csánki, Magyarország történelmi földrajza a Hunyadiak korában (Hungary's historical geography in the era of the Hunyadys), I—III, Budapest, 1890 — 1897. 17. This is what induced me to plan the publication of these five censuses, rich in informative data on Pest county's past. I mentioned this project in the postscript to my A budai szandzsák 1559. évi összeírása; for its realization, I am indebted to Tibor Egey, Director of the Pest County Archives, who encouraged me in the publication of this volume. 18. Our summary shows that in the sanjak of Buda, 378 families fled from a total of 32 settlements; 17 of these were inhabited by 10 of fewer families. Of the remaining 15, the most populous was the village of Pene, where 49 families lived in 1546. Six other villages, with a total population of 120 families, were inhabited again by 1590. 37
