Page 75 - Upland Families, Elites and Communities

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

the weight of huge amounts of financial claims, Lukáš Kožený handed his
farm, appraised at 200 kopas, to his son-in-law completely without debts.
The new householder was only asked to perform the retirement contract
and sustain his wife’s father as a former head. Unfortunately, seven years
of his management were enough not only for economic failure but also for
the real destruction of the farm, and the landlord considered his replace-
ment necessary. The homestead was compulsorily sold to Jan David, who
assumed debts of 177 kopas. After Jan’s premature death in 1722, his wid-
ow passed the farm with the same liabilities to his brother and even in 1757
the debts comprised half of the farm’s value. The David family did not gain
a better economic condition until the turn of the eighteenth century when
the land was divided between two brothers (na, apa i, inv. no. 2609, fol.
65, and inv. no. 52, fol. 177).
The permanent high indebtedness of rural farms was in some cases long
related to the unpaid emphyteutic sums: at the moment when the home-
stead was able to get rid of the initial obligation towards the landlord,
its economic balance usually improved. It was, of course, difficult to han-
dle the physically and organizationally demanding management of a vast
homestead, and many farmers failed in this regard. The manorial authority
could then order a change of the householder,¹⁰ or the head of the house-
hold himself recognized that he was not able to cope with his duties. Long
tenure by a single holder was generally of great benefit for the farms. Early
transfers of farms to the younger generation can sometimes be explained
by pressure from the landlord to change the householder, even if there was
no official intervention in the sense of deposing the original head of the
household.Economicallydangerouswastheprematuredeath ofthehouse-
holder, who died before he could provide for at least some of his children,
so theobligationtopaytheirsharespassedtothe heir of thehomestead.
In the case that a temporary householder had to be installed as the head of
the homestead, his duty was only to keep the farm in good condition until
the rightful heir came of age, so the repayment of debts was even more
delayed.
A series of misfortunes caused decades of economic instability for Far-
ka’s farm No. 1 in Těchoraz which used to be one of the wealthiest home-
steads in the district. It must have been damaged in the Thirty Years’ War

¹⁰ Only seven forced transfers of rural farms ordered by the landlord have been found in the
villages under analysis in 1685–1742. All cases are dated to the period of economic difficul-
ties and were justified by the economic failure of the householders.

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