Századok – 2004

Tanulmányok - Vári András: Uralom az uradalomban. A nagybirtokos; a gazdatisztek és a parasztok közötti hatalmi viszonyok egy per tükrében az 1810 –es években III/539

URALOM AZ URADALOMBAN AZ 1810-ES ÉVEKBEN 599 és elképzelés belefér a társadalmi modernizációról alkotott képzeteinkbe, és egyik sem valósult meg teljesen. Egymással azonban ütköztek, és a konfliktus rendezésére hivatott fórumon, a vármegye tisztségviselői és közönsége előtt a Mike által szekerébe fogott jogelveknek és az azokban tükröződő társadalmi jövőképnek volt nagyobb ereje. DOMINATION IN THE DOMINIUM by András Vári (Summary) The paper tries to reconstruct the structures of local power on the basis of a law suit that went through several investigations and the manorial and county court as well. The estate steward of the Counts Károlyi was charged with embezzlement. Out of the investigations, witnesses' accounts the picture emerges,that the steward had fallen prey to a coalition of his local enemies. On the other hand careful reading of the investigations shows that he wasn't a lonely sinner either. His actions required the cooperation of a number of persons. Only a part of his partners were fellow-stewards, the coalitions embraced persons of different social status. One of the assumed helpers was the community of the town of Ecsed. That town was at the time in the turbulent process of being deprived by the estate administration of the Károlyi of the lease of deserted land, that provided its bread. So it seems that the steward had even had some helpers in a communitiy that was locked in a bloody struggle with the estate administration - practically, among th enemies of his lords. This also explains, how could the sustain a legal proceddings lasting several years - his helpers stuck to him. They seem to have helped the steward in hiding a substantial part of his wealth (cattle, capital) from confiscation. The legal proceedings have shown which were the weak points in the by that time modernized, "bureaucratized" estate administration. These were the ones that the great estate strove to defend in the legal proceedings with all its might. In the process it tried to put the burden of proof on the accused stward and inflated the charges and claims against its former employee out of all proportion. But this was neither personally motivated, nor irrational caprice. The extension of the liability of the employees' was one piece of the growing dependence of estate administrators, stewards on their employers, which in turn could be seen as a necessary step towards the difficult, but profitable bureaucratization of estate administration. Contrary to the efforts of the great Károlyi estate the manorial court have dropped some of the charges and refused some of the claims. After its sentence was appealed, the county court did so with respect to the majority of the charges. In explaining its decisions, the county court has repeatedly referred to the valid legal principles of the age, among them, to equality before the law. The actions and principles of the county court be understood as part of the social process of modernization, but this could apply just as well to the efforts of the estate organization at bureaucratization.