Page 56 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

Markéta Skořepová

called Soziale Structuren in Böhmen, a research system of individual probes
into diverse regions covering a long period was established (Cerman and
Maur 2000; Prass et al. 2003; Cerman and Luft 2005). Analysis combin-
ing a micro-level perspective in a sense of place and a long-run approach
in a sense of time and continuity remains a tried and tested method in
Czech rural history (Grulich 2008; Štefanová 2009; Velková 2009; Zeitl-
hofer 2014; Pražáková Seligová 2015; Skořepová 2016; Nekvapil Jirásková
2019;Nekvapil2021; Slováková 2023).Present-day researcherscontinue to
develop the questions of family life and familial and personal strategies in
rural society, whereas the economic history of the early modern rural space
has been quite neglected in recent years (Grulich and Skořepová 2015).
The presented study is part of a broader, recently begun research that
aimstoinvestigatesocial,familyandpropertystructuresintheruralspace,
using the example of Červená Řečice estate in South Bohemia, belonging
to the Archbishops of Prague. It is seen as an opportunity for a micro-
historical inquiry or case study that could show the transformation of the
Bohemian countryside within the long period from the seventeenth to the
mid-nineteenth century, during which the rural space underwent a huge
number of changes. The Červená Řečice estate was primarily chosen due to
a series of well-preserved and well-maintained source records stored with-
in the holdings of the Prague Archbishopric Archives, but also due to the
archiepiscopal authority itself, which was probably able to respond to state
reforms or economic trends more quickly than the other, less exposed or
less wealthy, estate holders (Skořepová 2022).
This study aims to follow the transformation of the social structure in se-
lected villages of the Červená Řečice estate from the end of the sixteenth
to the beginning of the nineteenth century based on the available infor-
mation about individual subject homesteads and their holders. The acqui-
sition of ownership rights to homesteads, the process of the gradual for-
mation of smaller homesteads and the problem of indebtedness of rural
farms are perceived as key issues. All the examined issues are closely asso-
ciated with the relationship between landlords and subjects, which in the
period studied underwent numerous changes forced by the overall social,
economic and demographic situation as well as by the increasing state in-
tervention (Maur 1996; Velková 1999; Cerman and Morawetz 2023). The
development of this region, in comparison to other regions of Bohemia,
could have been influenced by natural conditions, where the mountain-
ous, infertile area motivated its inhabitants to look for other sources of
livelihood than just agriculture. The second key factor was the stability of

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