The Town as Landlord.: Košice and Its Villages before the Abolition of Serfdom

This paper aims to investigate the complex relationship between a town and its hinterland in the situation where the town acts as landlord for the surrounding settlements. The case study examines the multi-ethnic town of Košice (Kassa in Hungarian), one of the most important centres in the Kingdom of Hungary (and Slovakia’s second largest city today), in the years before the abolition of serfdom by the laws of 1848. As a free royal town, Košice was entitled to possess villages due to the privileges bestowed upon it by the kings of Hungary. The paper first examines the economic aspects of this relationship to provide an over- view of the contribution of the villages to the urban economy. It then focuses on the everyday interactions between the town and its villeins to highlight the characteristics of the behaviour of the city as seigneur from a micro-level perspective. The investigation proves that while the town council’s attitude towards peasants was consistently strict, it never acted in a despotic manner. The peasantry, on the other hand, sought loopholes in the regulations and tried to take advantage of lax control or the seigneur’s generosity. However, the villagers also regarded the city as indispensable for their livelihoods and as vital support in times of crisis.This paper aims to investigate the complex relationship between a town and its hinterland in the situation where the town acts as landlord for the surrounding settlements. The case study examines the multi-ethnic town of Košice (Kassa in Hungarian), one of the most important centres in the Kingdom of Hungary (and Slovakia’s second largest city today), in the years before the abolition of serfdom by the laws of 1848. As a free royal town, Košice was entitled to possess villages due to the privileges bestowed upon it by the kings of Hungary. The paper first examines the economic aspects of this relationship to provide an over- view of the contribution of the villages to the urban economy. It then focuses on the everyday interactions between the town and its villeins to highlight the characteristics of the behaviour of the city as seigneur from a micro-level perspective. The investigation proves that while the town council’s attitude towards peasants was consistently strict, it never acted in a despotic manner. The peasantry, on the other hand, sought loopholes in the regulations and tried to take advantage of lax control or the seigneur’s generosity. However, the villagers also regarded the city as indispensable for their livelihoods and as vital support in times of crisis

The origins of the negative historical representations of burghers in Hungary

Hungarian historiography needs to review its negative representation of towns and burghers typical of the first half of nineteenth-century Hungary, as Vera Bácskai, a major figure of Hungarian urban history suggested in a paradigmatic paper. Starting from her statements, this article examines the historical narratives of secondary school textbooks and wider historical syntheses of Hungarian history published in the age of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918). The author shows that the burghers’ negative image was rooted in the political fights prior to the 1848 Revolution and the emergence of modern nationalism

Measurement of transpiration in Pinus taeda L. and Liquidambar styraciflua L. in an environmental chamber using tritiated water

Transpiration rates of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua L.) were measured at two different atmospheric water vapor pressure deficits (V.P.D.) in a controlled environment growth chamber using tritiated water as a tracer. The trees were maintained in a sealed plant bed containing a hydroponic nutrient solution into which labeled water (spike) was introduced. Samples of leaves, chamber air, spiked nutrient solution and control water were assayed for ratio-activity using liquid scintillation techniques to determine transpiration rates. The transpiration rate of sweetgum in ml./hr./gm. (4.95) was found to be 5 times greater than that of loblolly pine (1.03) at 1.84 V.P.D. and 8 times greater at 6.74 V.P.D. (15.99 for sweetgum vs. 2.19 for pine). Transpiration (based on measurements of leaf radioactivity) in both species rose with increasing deficit; however sweetgum increased its output by 3 times while pine only doubled its rate. Cyclical changes in transpiration rates were noted in both species; the sweetgum cycle required a 6 hour interval whereas the pine cycle required a 9 hour interval

Réflexions sur les catégories des recensements. L'exemple des bourgeois de la ville de Kassa (Hongrie), 1788-1847

La série des recensements effectuée par les échevins de la ville de Kassa entre 1788 et 1847, par sa continuité et par l'ampleur de ses informations, constitue une source très précieuse pour l'histoire sociale de la Hongrie. Ces recensements étaient effectués chaque année et servaient de base pour la répartition de l'impôt de l'année suivante. Pendant soixante ans, les rubriques d'enregistrement demeurent identiques : elles sont organisées en fonction des chefs de famille (eux seuls sont enre..

A történeti Abaúj, Torna, Zemplén megye társadalma a 19. század második felében. Mikroszintű regionális történeti-szociológiai vizsgálat = The society of the historical Abaúj, Torna, Zemplén counties in the second half 19th century

A kutatás a történeti Magyarország északkeleti régiója társadalmának jellemzőit vizsgálta a 19. század középső harmadában, mikroszintű összehasonlító megközelítésben. Az elemzés Torna vármegye egészére, valamint Sárospatakra, illetve a régió központjára, Kassa városára irányult, az 1851-es, 1857-es és 1869-es népszámlálások egyéni szintű adatsorainak teljességre törő számítógépes feldolgozásával. A kutatás kiterjedt a vizsgált népszámlálások foglalkozásszerkezeti kategóriáinak tartalmi elemzésére, és ennek eredményeként sor került egy egyedülállóan részletes, háromnyelvű mesterségkataszter összeállítására is. Az személyi szintű, nominális adatbázison alapuló regionális összehasonlító elemzés a vizsgált népesség alapvető társadalomszerkezeti mutatóit tárja fel (nemek, családi állapot, életkor szerinti megoszlás; vallási, nemzetiségi összetétel, háztartások nagysága és szerkezete, házasodási szokások, foglalkozási megoszlás, az alfabetizációs szint). Bemutatja a különböző jogi, politikai, illetve gazdasági helyzetű települések társadalma, vagyis a falusi, mezővárosi, illetve városi népesség közötti eltéréseket és hasonlóságokat, a jobbágyfelszabadítás hatásának, illetve a kapitalista berendezkedés kialakulásának mikroszintű társadalmi vonatkozásait. | In the course of the research the social characteristics of the north-eastern region of the historical Hungary was studied in the middle third of the 19th century, applying a micro-level comparative approach. The analysis focused on the territory of the historical Torna county, on the town of Sárospatak, as well as on the center of the whole region, the city of Kassa, based on a computer aided data processing of a database built using the individual level records (household registers) of the 1850/51, 1857 and 1869 censuses. The study covered also the deteailed analysis of the profession categories of the considered censuses, and as a result of this work a unique three language profession-cataster was compiled. The regional comparative analysis based on the individual level, nominal database discovers the fundamental social indices of the investigated population (gender; marital status; age distribution; distribution of religion and nationality; household size and structure; marital rules; occupational composition; level of alphabetisation). The variation and similarities of the local societies of settlements with different legal, political and economic conditions (i.e. rural and urban societies), the impact of the emancipation of serfs, as well as the micro-level social aspects of the emergence of capitalism were all considered