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¹¹ Malowist, “Economic and Social Development of the Baltic Countries,” p. 186; Malowist, “Inequality of Economic Development in Europe,” p. 28;Google ScholarTopolski, , “Economic Decline in Poland from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries,” in Essays in European Economic History, 1500–1800, ed. Earle, Peter (Oxford, 1974), p. 138;Google ScholarTopolski, “Manorial Serf Economy,” p. 350; Maczak, “Export of Grain,” p. 76; Makkai, “Neo-Serfdom: Origin and Nature,” p. 237; Rusinski, “Differentiation of Agrarian Structure,” pp. 87–88.Google Scholar

¹² The monopolization of land ownership is thus, following Kahan, A. (“Notes on Serfdom in Western and Eastern Europe,” this JOURNAL, 33 [03 1973], 86–99) treated as a significant determinant of the workings of agriculture in Eastern Europe.Google Scholar

¹³ North, Douglass and Thomas, Robert P., The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic History (Cambridge, 1973).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁴ Aubin, H., “The Lands East of the Elbe and German Colonization Eastwards,” in Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 1, The Agrarian Life of the Middle Ages, ed. Postan, M. M., 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 467, 471.Google Scholar

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¹⁶ Carsten, F. L., Origins of Prussia, chap. 6.Google Scholar See also Wunder, H. (“Peasant Organization and Class Conflict in East and West Germany,” Past and Present, no. 78 [02 1978], pp. 48–50) for East Elbian Germany generally.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, pp. 68–69.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Skwarczynski, P., “The Problem of Feudalism in Poland up to the Beginning of the 16th Century,” Slavonic and East European Review, 34 (06 1956), 304.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Compare Aichian, Armen and Demsetz, Harold, “Production, Information Costs and Economic Organization,” American Economic Review, 62 (12 1972).Google Scholar

²⁰ Compare Millward, Robert, “The Emergence of Wage Labour in Early Modern England,” Explorations in Economic History, 18 (01 1981), 21–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²¹ Rutkowski, “Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary”, p. 504.Google Scholar

²² Carsten, Origins of Prussia, p. 79.Google Scholar

²³ Skwarczynski, “Problem of Feudalism in Poland”, p. 307.Google Scholar

²⁴ Aubin, “Lands East of the Elbe”, p. 418.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ibid., p. 479.

²⁶ In all this there is a precise analogy with the military requirements of the prince. Defense and wars involved supervised teamwork and were organized either in the form of conscripted unpaid military labor services of the peasants or in the form of mercenaries—that is, wage labor financed ultimately from the money land taxes of the peasants.Google Scholar

²⁷ Rutkowski, “Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary,” p. 503.Google Scholar

²⁸ In Brandenburg there were servile domestics and the seasonal teamwork of dependent tenants, supplemented by a class of gardeners with a scrap of land and characterized by their Slavonic label, kossaten; an even more indicative label for their type of work is the term used in Meissen, handfröner, the handservers (Aubin, “Lands East of the Elbe”, p. 478). There are examples in Brandenburg of villages with Wends rendering services and also in Silesia of servile holdings within German villages. Labor services in only partially transformed settings were to be found in the fourteenth century in German villages in Prussia (on demesnes of the Order producing fodder for herds of cattle and horses) in the delta of the Vistula on old Slav soil, as well as on some estates of private landlords. Similarly in Poland by the fifteenth century there were still cases of only partly assimilated villages with dues similar to those under German law but with others aspects of the legal position basically Polish. Some villages in the East were completely unchanged, retaining precolonial manorial dues and customsGoogle Scholar(Rutkowski, “Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary,” p. 505).Google Scholar

²⁹ Compare Loewe, Karl von, “Commerce and Agriculture in Lithuania, 1480–1600,” Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 26 (02 1973), 23–37;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRutkowski, “Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary”; andGoogle ScholarFrench, R. A., “The Three-Field System of Sixteenth-Century Lithuania,” Agricultural History Review, 18, part 2 (1970), 106–25.Google Scholar

³⁰ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, chap. 8;Google ScholarBlum, , “The Rise of Serfdom in Eastern Europe,” American Historical Review, 62 (07 1957), 820–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ Makkai, “Neo-Serfdom: Origin and Nature,” p. 232.Google Scholar

³² Blum, , The End of the Old Order in Rural Europe (Princeton, 1978), p. 58. For skepticism on the role of legislation,CrossRefGoogle Scholarsee Rosdolsky, R., “The Nature of Peasant Serfdom in Central and Eastern Europe,” Journal of Central European Affairs, 12 (07 1952), 128–39.Google Scholar

³³ The two are precisely equivalent if each of the given peasant populations has the same prospective income in other regions (Y) or if the rent-fixing cartel can discriminate between individuals.Google Scholar

³⁴ Ignoring conspicuous consumption and extra peasant man-hours, the latter omission being consistent with the concentration in this paper on the extensive margin. Compare Engerman, Stanley, “Some Considerations Relating to Property Rights in Man,” this JOURNAL, 33 (03 1973), 46.Google Scholar

³⁵ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, pp. 156–62.Google Scholar

³⁶ Skwarczynski, , “Poland and Lithuania,” in New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 2, Counter Reformation and Price Revolution 1559–1610, ed. Wernham, R. B. (Cambridge, 1968), p. 379;Google ScholarZytkowicz, L., “The Peasant's Farm,” p. 148.Google Scholar

³⁷ Bogucka, “The Monetary Crisis,” p. 146.Google Scholar

³⁸ Maczak, A., “Money and Society in Poland and Lithuania in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” Journal of European Economic History, 5 (Spring 1976), p. 96.Google Scholar

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⁴¹ Ford, Guy S., “The Prussian Peasantry before 1807,” American Historical Review, 24 (07 1919), 372–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴² Similarly while considerations relating to the size of the production surplus (compare Engerman, “Property Rights in Man”) would suggest that serfdom will be associated with an extension of the margins of cultivation, the presence of enforcement costs vitiates any such conclusions. Thus under a free rental system any exogenous increases in population are absorbed by the economy as long as the peasant surplus is positive. Once the point is reached where the surplus disappears, further population increases would lead to emigration, as peasant income would be less than what can be earned elsewhere. A serf economy would absorb this second round of population increase as long as the margin of Y over subsistence income levels exceeds the incremental enforcement costs. If, however, the incremental cost is greater than Y-S then not even the first round of population increase would be wholly absorbed by the serf economy: either some population is allowed to emigrate or serfdom is abandoned in favor of market rents. Analogously the length of day that is worked by serfs would exceed that freely done by a rent-paying peasantry only if marginal enforcement costs are negligible—quite apart from the possibility that the innovating efficient peasant would have greater inducements to work longer.Google Scholar

⁴³ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, p. 149;Google Scholaridem, “The Origins of the Junkers,” English Historical Review, 62 (April 1947), 164–65.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Skwarczynski, “Poland and Lithuania,” p. 379; Maczak, “Export of Grain”; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm.”Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Wyczanski, A., “Tentative Estimates of Polish Rye Trade in the 16th Century,” Acta Poloniae Historicae, 4 (1961), 121–22.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ Zytkowicz, , “An Investigation into Agricultural Production in Masovia in the First Half of the 17th Century,” Acta Poloniae Historicae, 18 (1968), pp. 102–4;Google ScholarKula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, p. 117.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Gieysztorowa, Irena, “Research into the Demographic History of Poland: A Provisional Summing-Up,” Acta Poloniae Historicae, 18 (1968), Table 1;Google ScholarSkwarczynski, “Poland and Lithuania,” p. 377.Google Scholar See also Wyrobisz, Andrzej, “Small Towns in 16th and 17th-Century Poland,” Acta Poloniae Historicae, 34 (1976), 153–63 on urban populations.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Makkai, “Neo-Serfdom: “Origin and Nature,” p. 232.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, pp. 158–62; Rosenberg, “Rise of the Junkers,” p. 232.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Makkai, “Neo-Serfdom: Origin and Nature,” p. 232; French, “Three-Field System,” p. 109; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 138–39;Google ScholarKaminski, A. J., “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” Slavic Review, 34 (06 1975), p. 261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁵² For all this paragraph see French, “Three-Field System,” pp. 108–9; Blum, End of the Old Order, p. 53;Google ScholarMaczak, , “The Social Distribution of Landed Property in Poland from the 16th to the 18th Century,” Third International Conference of Economic History: Munich 1965 (Paris, 1968), p. 469;Google ScholarMaczak, “Export of Grain,” p. 78; Zytkowicz, “Agricultural Production in Masovia,” p. 110; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 150–51; Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” pp. 264–65; Rosdolsky, “Distribution of the Agrarian Product,” pp. 262–63; Skwarczynski, “Poland and Lithuania,” p. 379.Google Scholar

⁵³ If all land on an estate was of the same quality the demesne would presumably be located near to the manor house, the location of which would be affected by such nonagricultural considerations as defense. If land was not uniform there would be further savings of supervision time if the demesne were located on the better land as in the Lithuanian wloca reform.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 138–39; Makkai, “Neo-Serfdom: Origin and Nature,” p. 232.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Ford, “Prussian Peasantry before 1807,”, p. 367;Google ScholarSpiesz, A., “Czechoslovakia's Place in the Agrarian Development of Middle and East Europe of Modern Times,” Studio Historica Slovaca, 6 (1969), 25.Google Scholar See also Spiesz, “Czechoslovakia,” p. 22 for references to the consolidation of demesne on the best land in Livonia.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ French, “Three-Field System,” p. 110 and footnote.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Topolska, Maria B., “Peculiarities of the Economic Structure of Eastern White Russia in the Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries,” Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, 6 (1971), 37–49;Google ScholarFrench, “Three-Field System”, pp. 106–18; Blum, End of the Old Order, p. 157.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ On this paragraph see French, “Three-Field System,” p. 112; Blum, “Rise of Serfdom,” pp. 830–32; Skwarczynski, “Poland and Lithuania,” p. 379; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” p. 148; Topolski, “Manorial Serf Economy,” p. 350; Carsten, Origins of Prussia, pp. 104–5, 109–10, 157–58, 162;Google ScholarBath, B. H. Slicher van, “Serfdom in Eastern Europe”, in Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 5, The Economic Organisation of Early Modern Europe, ed. Rich, E. E. and Wilson, C. H. (Cambridge, 1977), chap. 2(5), p. 118;Google ScholarLoewe, “Commerce and Agriculture in Lithuania”; Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania”, p. 265.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” p. 257; Blum, End of the Old Order, pp. 53–54; Carsten, Origins of Prussia, p. 158.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ For example, Topolski, “Economic Decline in Poland,” pp. 138–39; Maczak, “Social Distribution of Landed Property,” p. 469.Google Scholar

⁶¹ French, “Three-Field System”, p. 111.Google Scholar

⁶² Rutkowski, “Poland, Lithuania, and Hungary,” pp. 491–92.Google Scholar

⁶³ Aubin, “Lands East of the Elbe,” p. 478.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ See for example, Wallerstein, Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture, pp. 87–114; Engerman, “Property Rights in Man,” pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” pp. 264–65;Google ScholarZytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 150–51;Google ScholarMaddalena, Aldo De, “Rural Europe 1500–1750,” in Fontana Economic History of Europe, The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, ed. Cipolla, C. (Glasgow, 1974), chap. 4, p. 288.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Rosdolsky, “Distribution of the Agrarian Product”; Blum, End of the Old Order, p. 105; Ford, “Prussian Peasantry before 1807,” pp. 371–72.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Compare Molenda, D., “Investments in Ore Mining in Poland from the 13th to the 17th Centuries,” Journal of European Economic History, 5 (Spring 1976), 151–69;Google ScholarLeskiewicz, J., “Les Entraves Sociales au Développement de la ‘Nouvelle Agriculture’ en Pologne,” Deuxiéme Conference Internasionale d' Histoire Economique: Aix-en-Provence, 1962 (Paris, 1965), p. 241.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” p. 261; Ford, “Prussian Peasantry before 1807,” p. 372; Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, pp. 116, 149; Leskiewicz, “Les Entraves Sociales,” p. 238.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Blum, End of the Old Order, p. 54.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Compare Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, p. 135.Google Scholar

⁷² Zytkowicz, “Agricultural Production in Masovia,” pp. 112–18. See also Topoiski, “Economic Decline in Poland”, p. 132.Google Scholar

⁷³ The church tithe was often levied as a percentage of the crop and hence left an incentive to the peasants to maximize production, even though peasant income was reduced, other things being equal, relative to activities which did not carry such a tax.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, p. 139.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Blum, “Rise of Serfdom,” p. 832; Carsten, Origins of Prussia, p. 162; Ford, “Prussian Peasantry before 1807,” p. 365; Blum, End of the Old Order, pp. 41–42.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” p. 140; Ford, “Prussian Peasantry before 1807,” p. 359;Google ScholarTopolski, , “La Rêféodalisation dans l'economie des grands domaines en Europe centrale et orientale (XVIe-XVIIIe ss),” Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, 6 (1971), p. 59.Google Scholar

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⁷⁸ Blum, End of the Old Order, p. 106.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” pp. 94–95; idem, “Money and Society”, pp. 99–101.

⁸⁰ Topolski, “Economic Decline in Poland,” pp. 134–138.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Blum, End of the Old Order, pp. 105–10. This surely accounts for Kaminski's puzzle (“Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” p. 266) that many landless laborers did not take up the life of the cottager even though there was enough land.Google Scholar

⁸² Carsten, Origins of Prussia, pp. 160–64.Google Scholar

⁸³ Maczak, “Social Distribution of Landed Property,” p. 458; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” p. 138.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” pp. 94–95.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, p. 161; Topolski, “Economic Decline in Poland,” pp. 134–38; Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 141–42.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Blum, “Rise of Serfdom,” pp. 358, 370 fn; idem, End of the Old Order, p. 30.

⁸⁷ Blum (End of the Old Order, pp. 30–32)Google Scholar suggests that the proportion of peasants who were free at the end of the eighteenth century was higher in East than West Germany and higher in Poland and the Danubian principalities than in all the servile lands.

⁸⁸ Topolska, “Eastern White Russia,” p. 43.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” pp. 86–90.Google Scholar For Polish colonization of the Russian lands see Lyashchenko, P. I., “White Russia and the Ukraine under the Polish Yoke of Serfdom during the 14th to 17th Centuries,” History of the National Economy of Russia, (New York, 1970), chap. 14.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Topolska, “Eastern White Russia,” p. 42; Kaminski, “Neo Serfdom in Poland-Lithuania,” p. 261.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Zytkowicz, “Agricultural Production in Masovia,” pp. 117–18.Google Scholar

⁹² Wyczanski, “Polish Rye Trade,” p. 118; Maczak, “Export on Grain,” pp. 91–94.Google Scholar

⁹³ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” pp. 94–95.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Compare Maczak, , “The Balance of Polish Sea Trade with the West, 1565–1646,” Scandianvian Economic History Review, 18 (1970), 107–42;CrossRefGoogle ScholarRusinski, W., “The Role of Polish Territories in the European Trade in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Studia Historiae Oeconomicae, 3 (1969), 115–34; and Wyczanski's (“Polish Rye Trade”) estimate that 90 percent of grain exports were rye.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ This can be deduced from Zytkowicz's figures (“Agricultural Production in Masovia”, pp. 117–19).Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” Table 2. See also Wyrobisz, “Small Towns in Poland,” for the activities of merchants.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Carsten, Origins of Prussia, chap. 8; Rosenberg, “Rise of the Junkers,” p. 234.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Zytkowicz, “The Peasant's Farm,” pp. 137, 144–45.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Zytkowicz, “Agricultural Production in Masovia,” pp. 113–18.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Maczak, “Export of Grain,” Table 2.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Maczak, “Balance of Polish Sea Trade”.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, pp. 92–93; Wyczanski, “Polish Rye Trade,” p. 130.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Kula, Economic Theory of the Feudal System, pp. 93–100Google ScholarBogucka, , “Merchants' Profits in Gdansk Foreign Trade in the First Half of the 17th Century,” Acta Poloniae Historicae, 23 (1971), 73–90;Google ScholarBogucka, , “The Role of Baltic Trade in European Development from the XVIth to the XVIIIth Centuries,” Journal of European Economic History (Spring 1980), p. 7.Google Scholar On this whole paragraph see also Abel, W., Agricultural Fluctuations in Europe from the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (New York, 1980), part 2.Google Scholar

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