Page 129 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

A Dynasty of Mayors and a Member of Parliament

ton Černe managed to accumulate, he seems to have become increasingly
alienated from the village reality in which he lived. Allegedly, his politi-
cal opportunism was detrimental to the reputation he enjoyed among the
Tomaj villagers and the Karst people in general.
To understand how and why Anton Černe lost favour with the Karst peo-
ple, a closer look is needed at his political activities as well as processes of
landed property accumulation. These took place in times of economic cri-
sis and were, as a consequence, often marked by the peasants’ impoverish-
ment. Following the mechanism used by his forefathers, most notably the
mayor Ivan in the mid-eighteenth century, Anton Černe eventually seized
peasants’ indebted estates in the case they were unable to repay his loans.
Černe began lending money in his youth (between 1840 and 1849), when
he served as a mayor (pang, 939, 5). At that time, lending was a matter of
individual cases; the debts did not reach the scale that would appear later.
Already in 1866, an increase in debts was registered, and in Anton’s charts,
where he recorded the debts of individuals, we can enumerate as many as
69persons,ofwhom21(orapproximately30percent)were Tomaj villagers.
In 1887, the numbers rose to 93 debtors, 28 of them being locals. The total
debt of the villagers native to Tomaj rose from 2,262 Gulden in 1866 to 3,619
Gulden in 1887. The village households which were most in debt to Anton
Černe owed 215 Gulden in 1866 and 415 in 1887 (pang, 939, 5).
A glance at the purchase and sale contracts in the Černe family legacy
reveals various cases of financially burdened peasants who were unable to
repay their debts and, as a consequence, faced land seizure. Anton thus ex-
propriated Valentin Raubar from the nearby village (of Vrhovlje) who owed
him 187 Gulden in addition to the interests at six percent. He similarly took
over estates (two fields) of his co-villager Andrej Slavec, who owed Anton
140 Gulden plus the eight percent interest (pang, 939, 4). In the same vein
he seized property of the co-villager Luka Petelin, owing Anton 323 Gulden
along with the seven percent interest (ibid.). Furthermore, he temporarily
gained (the contract stipulated 30-years’ use) several properties of Mathias
Oru (probably Matija Orel) whose father was a real-estate owner, landlord
and innkeeper in a nearby village but Matija ultimately became financial-
ly insolvent and borrowed 1,200 Gulden (ibid.). In addition, Anton Černe
acquired estates of Anton Lazar from a nearby village, who passed away

marriage contract between Alojzija Černe and Mihael Delles by notary Peter Kozlerju in
Sežana, 12 November 1862; Heiratsvertrag, marriage contract between Jožefa Černe and
Andrej Kocjan by notary Kozler in Sežana, 29 January 1857.

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