Hungarian Agrarian Society from the Emancipation of Serfs (1848) to the Re-privatization of Land (1998) - East European Monographs 530. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 98. (New York, 1998)

Gunst Péter (szerk.): Hungarian Agrarian Society from the Emancipation of Serfs (1848) to the Re-privatization of Land (1998) - East European Monographs 530. Atlantic Studies on Society in Change 98. (New York, 1998)

Hugarian Agrarian Society from Feudalism to Capitalism (1848 - 1945) - Miklós Szuhay: The Capitalization of Agriculture

Miklós Szuhay The Capitalization of Agriculture The capitalist development of Hungarian agriculture, beginning at the end of the eighteenth century, accelerated after feudalism was abolished by the 1848 revolution. The abolishment of serfdom cleared the way for capitalist, but particularly for agricultural development. The emancipation of serfs, with regard to the serfs’ extensive differentiation, left most peasants without land or only small plots; approximately half of the land remained in landowners’ ownership. Even still, the elimination of serfdom was very significant in that a wage-laborer class could evolve, an indispensable condition for furthering capitalist development. The loss of free serf labor forced the large landowners to convert their estates to capitalist management. Aside from sustaining the large estate system, numerous smaller feudal constraints also remained, which hindered the furthering of capitalist development. Estate Policy and Estate Division Following the suppression of the revolution and the fight for freedom the absolute government was also forced to acknowledge the importance of serf emancipation. But in September 1849 they reinstated the wine tithe, which had been repealed in September 1848. The 1853 serf patent definitively settled the specific issues of serf emancipation. The 1867 Compromise stabilized the scope of agrarian development established in 1848. The agrarian policy measures following the Compromise served the further strengthening of the above framework and the necessary modernization. In the interest of conserving the large estate system, they strengthened the already existing institution of entailed property, based on which sixty-four new entailed estates were created between 1870-1900; their area—expanding to 2.37 million cadastral yokes— increased five-fold. The area of other lands, the sale of which had been banned or restricted estates also increased considerably. (The total area of estates of restricted sale increased by 52 percent. Almost six tenths of estates with more than 100 cadastral yokes was restricted).1 99