Page 73 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

The Family Economy in the Bohemian Rural Milieu in the Long-Term Perspective

ers was the worst, almost half of the rural farms were burdened with debts
exceeding 90 percent of their value. The proportion of such fatally indebt-
ed homesteads gradually decreased, but it fell even more significantly in
the second half of the eighteenth century, i.e. at the time when farmers
gained the opportunity to sell off parts of their farms. During the crisis at
the time of the Napoleonic Wars, the indebtedness of rural farms increased
again: the proportion of over-indebted farms increased, and the number
of those that were transferred to the next generation with only a minimal
burden also fell again.
The landlords in transfers of homesteads also determined the expected
number of instalments, thus establishing an ideal ‘repayment schedule.’
Before the Thirty Years’ War, aspiring householders usually pledged to pay
off their debts within 20 or 25 years; only exceptionally did the repayment
schedule exceed 30 years, and it was never planned for more than four
decades. However, of crucial importance is the fact that the household-
ers were able to comply with this arrangement and pay off their farms in
full (if they did not die prematurely). Two-thirds of the farmers within
the Zmišovice judicial district, who took over their homesteads before the
Thirty Years’ War, were able to leave their inheritance to their successors
completely ‘cleaned’ or with only minimal debts up to a tenth of the price
for the homestead. Householders who became heads of their households
after 1650 were most likely faced with debts reaching almost the full value
of the homesteads, but they were often able to turn the adverse situation
around for the better, and a quarter of them transferred only minimally in-
debted farms. In the following decades, however, the indebtedness of the
farms increased, and a large part of the householders were unable to settle
their debts – they did not repay them at all or paid only small amounts.
It was not an exception that the repayment schedule for the incoming
householder was planned out for a period even longer than 50 years,
which of course exceeded the duration of an individual’s normal productive
period.
In the post-war period, the strategy of ‘buying up’ the amounts owed
(skupování) was regularly used to pay off debts. The principle consisted in
paying off a third of the original claim to the creditor, who decided to give
priority to receiving at least some money immediately rather than waiting
for the lengthy repayment of the entire amount. In many cases, this was
the only way to relieve the over-indebted homestead and rid it of decades-
old debts. The landlord was also aware of this. At the end of the seven-
teenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, over-indebted farm-

71