Socioeconomic Mobility and Property Transmission among Peasants: The Cheb Region (Czech Republic) in the Late Middle Ages
Abstract
The paper explains the character of the stratification, socioeconomic mobility and property transmission among peasants in the Late Middle Ages. The case-study region is the Cheb district, for which a unique fiscal source has been preserved. In accordance with the methodological approaches of early modern agrarian history, we test several main interpretational models - differentiation, cyclic and the model of uneven reproduction. For the period 1438-1456, we analyse (1) dynamics of inequality among peasants, (2) the level of the continuity of the holders and families on the farmsteads (the so-called replacement rate), (3) the relationship between the monetary value and the relative and absolute property mobility within the lifecycle of the family, (4) and the same relationship for the intergenerational transmission of property. In the analysis, we take into account the different geographic conditions of the settlements and also catastrophic events. The sample included 504 farmsteads. We show that (i) the stratification of the peasantry did not change dramatically; (ii) wealthy families relatively frequently reproduced themselves on the same farmsteads, whereas the poor more often left their original farmsteads or died out in the male line; (iii) the property position of the wealthy families remained relatively stable and their large land property could be divided among more offspring. This finding corresponds best to the model of uneven reproduction. This model emphasises the different reproduction possibilities and socioeconomic mobility of the rich and poor families and also the differences between the individual children of the wealthy. It also links the social and geographic mobility of the peasantry together.