Subject patent

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The subject patent (also referred to as the waiver of serfdom ) of November 1, 1781 was a decree of Emperor Joseph II to reorganize the subject's dependence on the respective landlord. This reform was supposed to free the peasants from labor and other services.

prehistory

In 1775 a peasant uprising broke out in Bohemia. Under the leadership of Matthias Schwoika (Matěj Chvojka) (1755–1791) from Raudnitz ( Roudnice ), farmers plundered the country and set castles on fire. Only shortly before Prague could they be stopped and in 1777 appeased with offers to improve their position.

Emperor Joseph II carried out the peasant reforms to secure his policy. He also believed that better treatment of farmers could increase productivity in agriculture.

Subject patent from 1781

With the subject patent of November 1, 1781, serfdom was abolished and all peasants were granted the right to freely choose their place of residence, free marriage and free choice of occupation for their children (e.g. for training in a craft). In front of Austria serfdom was not abolished due to resistance from the local estates until December 20, 1782. The right of ransom from the respective landlord was connected with the dissolution of the labor service. The farmers were now allowed to buy their way out of the robot, whereby this should be replaced in money if possible, but payments in kind were also allowed. At the same time, Emperor Joseph II issued a criminal patent that restricted the landlords' criminal jurisdiction.

In 1785 Joseph II ordered the so-called tax and land regulation. This Josephine reform was a continuation of the subject patent of 1781 and of central importance in the emperor's reform policy. It represented a severe encroachment on the privileged rights of the feudal landowners. From this point on, 70 percent of the land yield remained with the farmers, of the remaining 30 percent, 12.5 percent were to go to the state as taxes and 17.5 percent to the landlords. The improvement in the farmers' situation resulted from the fact that the taxes were only paid in cash and no longer in the form of taxes in kind or compulsory labor.

Another regulation from 1785 improved the freedom of movement for farmers. The ordinance said, among other things: “In the future, everyone is free to move their property from one place to another in the districts of the Bohemian-Austrian German states, including Galicia, without being able to demand a manorial, civil or princely departure fee . "

Since the emperor was familiar with the needs of his subjects through his many travels, he cared for poor and sick people in an exemplary manner. So he founded the General Hospital in Vienna and the Josephinum , an institution for the deaf and dumb and the blind, as well as poor, orphaned and disabled homes.

Reactions

Not all large landowners and farmers were satisfied with the reforms, some rebelled against the peasant reforms of the subject patent. Some landlords had not announced the new decrees of the emperor or only with delay.

The effectiveness of the reforms remained limited to the Austrian hereditary lands , the lands of the Bohemian crown and the crown land of Galicia , because the Hungarian nobility had succeeded in preventing the reforms from coming into force in their country, except for the abolition of serfdom. But some peasants also rebelled because they either wanted more radical reforms or were satisfied with their subservience and the taxes they had to pay.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Angelika Kiel: The farmers under Emperor Joseph II.
  2. ↑ The Josephine Tax and Urbarial Regulation (accessed on March 23, 2015)