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# {2-310.} The Lower Orders: Villeins, Freemen, Miners, Craftsmen, Village Communities

When some natives of the Csík szék needed to raise ransom money to escape wartime captivity, they sold themselves into serfdom to István Apor. Their was just one case among many. An army of some ten thousand men had been made captive by the Turks, and the latter took many peaceable civilians into foreign captivity during their three campaigns of reprisal. To obtain ransom money, most commoners had no choice but to pledge their labour and that of their descendants to the third or fourth generation. The situation of the villeins was determined by the fact that Transylvania suffered from labour shortage at a time when the landowners, intent on developing their manorial estates, were insatiable in their demand for manpower. The period was marked by large-scale migration. Those who were devoid of privileges and wished to change their circumstances — to escape from an unfertile region, from burdensome demands, from the arbitrariness of a landowner or the brutality of a bailiff — had the option of moving and taking on the dubious benefits of lasting bondage. People who suffered from poor harvests, long winters, epidemics, warfare, and the daily problems of survival were scarcely disposed to weigh carefully the long-term implications of bondage. Many thus traded one state of defencelessness for another that carried even greater burdens. To free himself from his former landlord, a Romanian villein named Alexa indentured himself to János Geréb 'in perpetuity, with all his children'. Romanian villeins who fled the harsh conditions of Moldavia and Wallachia and feared forcible repatriation would readily pledge themselves and their descendants in perpetuity to a nobleman engaged in expanding his manor. Villeins were valuable assets: the tax authorities valued János Cserei's house in Fogaras at 200 forints, and his two villeins in Ágostonfalva at 210 forints. Hungry for manpower, the landowners were ready to expend cash to obtain {2-311.} villeins. In a typical case, in 1662 at Csíkszentmihály, István Csicsói Gedő sold one of his villeins into perpetual servitude to Miklós Szentsimoni Endes. Debts and services could be redeemed not only by, say, jewelry, but by the transfer of villeins. In 1673, the diet enacted a bill prohibiting the remuneration of lawyers by the transfer of domestic animals and villeins, a practice that had led to innumerable abuses; however, the law provided that a person who 'cannot pay off a lawyer in money or other remuneration may assign to him in perpetuity one villein valued at 40 forints'.[61]61. EOE 15.

An innovation pertaining to new villeins was the practice of 'relocation', in which the villein was bound not only to the land but also to his owner. Landowners, particularly those with large and dispersed estates, wanted the freedom to assign their villeins, as the need arose, to one or the other of their manorial farms, and this became a general practice with regard to perpetual villeins. What is more, they would commonly shift groups of villeins from pledged or redeemed properties to their freehold estates. This personal bond was a significant new feature in the relationship between villein and landowner. For one thing, it weakened the link to the land and facilitated tax evasion by landowners and villeins; for another, it put the villeins almost entirely at the mercy of their masters. Both the government and peasants who lived in cohesive village communities fought against this new development.

The peasantry, which accounted for the majority of the population, was far from homogeneous. The largest concentrations of free peasants were found in the vicinity of fortresses. The circumstances of prosperous Saxon peasants, Romanian shepherds on their alpine pastures, and Hungarian as well as Romanian villeins differed greatly, and each ethnic group was also marked by diversity. The cotters were generally prosperous. In the Székelyföld, the situation of the 'ancient villeins' was radically different from that of the more loosely bound villeins on landowners' estates. Those who lived in wine-growing regions and near commercial roads {2-312.} found more opportunities for wage labour, while those living in the vicinity of estates belonging to towns, aristocrats, or the Treasury had to perform the most socage. A villein's wealth depended on the number of draught animals, the size of his plot, and, with regional variations, on his ownership of cleared land, farm animals, vegetable gardens, vineyards, and woodlots. There are references in contemporary records to prosperous fruit-growing villages in the Nyárád river valley, to wealthy winegrower cotters, and to peasants who leased mills and turned a good profit. The situation revealed by the 1673 urbarium of the estate of Rónaszék, in Máramaros County, is broadly representative. The sixteen settlements on the estate encompassed 504 villein households, which owned a total of 1,040 draught animals (271 horses and 769 oxen) as well as over 8,000 sheep and goats, 894 cows, and 622 pigs. To be sure, close to ten percent of the draught animals were owned by two per cent of the families, and 169 families had no draught animals at all. A small stratum of prosperous villeins owned close to 25 percent of the sheep.

That small stratum consisted of the more assiduous and enterprising peasants, who at times would mercilessly exploit their poorer fellows. Sources agree that most villeins lived in abject poverty; the penury was particularly acute in the early 1660s.

Over the last five decades of the principality's existence, people who lived in the vicinity of manorial farms saw a steady increase in their socage obligations. The peasants in Szélkút, Megykerék, and other villages of the Nagyterem estate were expected to harvest and mow hay as the need arose; at other times, they devoted every second week to the landowner's service. From the early 1660s onwards, the tendency was for socage to be treated as an almost unlimited obligation; peasants had to serve as the need arose. To be sure, on some estates, villagers would provide labour for two to six weeks during the harvest and hay-making and avoid additional socage by making payments in cash or in grain. The {2-313.} 1670 urbarium of the Somkút-Pataka estate indicates a fairly typical order of service: 'three weeks of hay-cutting, three weeks of harvesting, and if there is time left over in the six weeks, it shall be devoted to tending vineyards. Instead of serving with their draught animals, [peasants] will pay 400 forints per year...'[62]62. M. Szentgyörgyi, 'Jobbágyterhek', p. 30 (OL, UetC 45/54). In some places — e.g. Martontelke, where villeins provided wine instead of socage — service obligations were routinely redeemed in kind. The exemption from tithes of certain groups of villeins engaged in stockbreeding was abolished in 1653, but in some places, notably Kalotaszeg, villeins could pay their tithes in cash. Traditionally, the 'census' tax was levied on the basis of land, but, in the second half of the 17th century, it became customary to take into account the number of draught animals as well.

The circumstances and obligations of villeins varied even on individual estates, and this to a greater extent in Transylvania than in royal Hungary. On the Fogaras estate, for instance, villains had to pay 'cabbage money', lamb tax, 'dry-inn money' (szárazkocs-mapénz), and perform socage as well; but seven villages paid a flat tax amounting to a total of 1380 forints. In earlier times, villeins on the Treasury estates had enjoyed more favourable conditions than those on private estates, but in the second half of the century they too were driven to perform a growing list of services.

Apart from agricultural work, most villages were burdened with obligations to provide transport and ancillary craft services. According to the urbarium of 1681–82, unskilled labour for the iron pits at Hunyad County was supplied by Hungarian and Romanian villeins from twenty-three villages, and for Csíkmadaras from eleven villages. The villagers serving the ironworks were less bound, and had more privileges and prospects than the villeins on agricultural estates. On the other hand, their duties were more burdensome and risk-laden, and their exploitation more oppressive. In Csíkmadaras, the labourers, miners, ore carriers, and carters even received some remuneration in cash. The villeins from the wooded {2-314.} areas near the Hunyad works performed many tasks: they cut wood, made charcoal, did construction work, loaded and transported iron ore, and tended the furnaces. Cartage was generally considered to be the heaviest task: these villeins were required to provide ten four-ox carts a week for the transportation of iron. In addition, the villeins from the wooded districts had to 'provide hay for the horses transporting iron ore and coal.' 'At harvest time, the mine operations were suspended, and the villeins attached to the mines had to reap and collect the wheat, and to cut the hay as well. The same villeins had the weekly duty of delivering iron from the foundries to the bailiff.'[63]63. D. Prodan, Productia fierului, p. 112. The villeins of Csíkmadaras were required to cart the iron to Csíkszereda and bring salt on their return trip.

The number of Csík villeins working for the foundry was 138 in 1673, 116 in 1677, and 124 in 1681. They were exempt from military service and paid state tax at a reduced rate (fifty percent for those in the wooded districts). Occasionally, and depending on the type of work performed, they received compensation, partly in cash, but for the most part in iron or salt, which, if they were lucky, could be profitably resold. The more skilled and versatile of these villeins could end up as regularly-paid skilled workers. The relentless rhythm of their work left no time for rest; in the summer, they laboured in the fields, and in winter, they had to build up the stocks of firewood. Many villeins at Csíkmadaras would accept considerable financial sacrifices and even risk punishment in order to escape from the oppressive atmosphere of the ironworks. In 1680, some 150 people were interrogated during a search for villeins who had fled from the Csík ironworks. The investigation revealed that supervisors abused ruthlessly their authority, driving many villeins to seek escape at any cost. Thus one János Csiszár managed to leave the works by binding himself to serve 'my lord Miklós Endes' for a period of three years; Péter Albert gave two young bullocks to 'my lords and scribes Gergely and István'; as for Ferenc Márton, he paid 22 forints and bound his son to serve the same scribe István for one year.[64]64. J. Pataki, A csíki vashámor, pp. 75-7.

{2-315.} In the second half of the 17th century, Transylvania's peasantry found some limited opportunities to engage in diverse village crafts. However, only in the market towns could the blanket-weavers who kept treadmills (dürückölőmalom), the potters, shinglers, stone-cutters, salt miners, and blacksmiths achieve a degree of independence. The others were subjected to the authority of landowners, or of the urban guilds, much as the peasant guilds in the Saxon lands had come to be dominated by the urban guilds. And even in such market towns, connected to salt mines, as Dés, Torda, Kolozs, and Vizakna, the lowly craftsmen felt the twin pressures of the Treasury and of private entrepreneurs. The demand for wage labour was strongest in viniculture and mining. At Kolozsvár, vineyard hoers were paid at the rate of 10 dinars for men, and 9 dinars for women.

At times, the salt mines seemed to swallow up manpower. Salt miners enjoyed the prince's protection; instructions issued in the 1660s regulated the conditions of work in broadly similar fashion at the various salt mines. The terms of employment of the so-called guest miners were also clearly prescribed. However, there was erosion in the privileges traditionally enjoyed by the several miners' groups. In this period. the major grievance of the peasant miners at Torockó was that they were required to 'do unpaid socage work' in the new silver and mercury mines.[65]65. Zs. Jakó, Torockó, p. 10.

Along the salt routes and other commercial roads, there developed a string of villages in which the population earned its living from cartage. Carters were the main settlers in the towns' suburbs, and, in the Barcaság, 'moneyed carters' came to constitute a distinct social stratum.

The various strata in the 'lower orders' were equally burdened by the growing demands of the state, which included labour in the fortresses, public cartage, postal services, and, above all, taxes. In 1673, Transylvania's peasantry was compelled to provide six hundred carts for the transportation of food to the Turkish camp. {2-316.} Another burden was the recurrent need to supply provisions for tithe collectors and other agents of the government.

Although fiscal demands were comparatively light, the burdens imposed by the state weighed heavily on the population. The attempts of Apafi's government to protect the villeins were driven by necessity, and not by some anachronistic humanitarian spirit. The prince's protective measures ranged from selective tax concessions to the experiment in creating a comprehensive and universal system of taxation; the prince showed some receptiveness to the villeins' complaints, and soldiers who mistreated villeins would incur draconian punishment. When the government needed to recruit soldiers, it would occasionally override the old laws that gave landowners exclusive authority over their villeins. Although the prince was not yet prepared to intervene systematically in the relations between masters and villeins, there were instances when he would not allow dependents of his infantrymen to be burdened with socage duties, and when he accepted the peasant's testimony against a nobleman and punish the latter for his arbitrariness. Still, the ruler was unable to halt the swelling wave of abuses against common people in the 1680s.

The peasants' traditional forms of self-defence, the communal customs of villages and market towns, lived on. The community's disposition to manage its internal affairs could be observed in long-established Székely villages and villages of free Hungarian and Saxon peasants as well as in the more recent Romanian settlements. In matters involving the pattern of cultivation, the lease of, and income from alpine pastures, or the security of the settlement, individuals were expected to abide by the interests of the community. The records of village rules and meetings indicate the existence of a system of self-government headed by an elected magistrate and jurymen. This system, which was most deeply rooted in the Székely and Saxon lands, had many functions: protection of the community in times of near-anarchy, defence — within certain limits — {2-317.} against the arbitrariness of landowners, consolidation of the village community, and the representation of the latter in dealings with higher authority. The system of self-government promoted a sense of communal responsibility, but the results were far from idyllic, for it also allowed for the airing of conflicting interests; at best, the system served as a learning process in the art of mutual compromise between people divided by religion and legal status. The communal organization involved itself in economic as well as cultural matters; fines or corporal punishment were meted out to lazy shepherds, thieves, slanderers, and those who neglected their livestock or fields. An excerpt from the village regulations, dating from 1670, at Homoródszentpál offers a glimpse into the prevailing value-system: 'If a person cuts down fruit trees, pear trees, or apple trees on village lands, whether on his own plot or that of another, he will be fined, without recourse, fifty cents for each tree. The same punishment will apply even if the fruit tree is a mere seedling'.[66]66. I. Imreh, A törvényhozó székely falu (Bucharest, 1983), p. 325. During Apafi's reign, the Hungarian and Romanian villeins, Székely peasants, mercury-miners, salt-miners, gold-washers, and carters were comparatively quiescent. By the 1690s, this situation had changed; the spreading social turmoil in Transylvania was a harbinger of Rákóczi's War of Independence.