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ABSTRACT
This article sets forth an exhaustive analysis of the importance of natural resources in the daily lives of peasants in nineteenth-century Austrian Galicia during a period of socio-economic upheaval. These resources included firewood and timber, and were gathered by peasants under their common rights to access manorial forests. Against the background of a changing Galician countryside, the everyday existence of peasants dependent on these resources was transformed. Forest resources symbolised wealth, and at the same time the goal of meeting the existential needs of peasants. By giving a direct voice to the rural population, as contained in unique manuscripts, it was possible to recreate and reconstruct this part of life, seen through the eyes of the poorest social group struggling with the trials of everyday life, such as poverty, hunger, shortages of fuel for cooking and heating and maintaining basic hygiene in dilapidated buildings.
acknowledgements
This article arose from the research project ‘The Conflicts of Easements in Galicia in the Second Half of the 19th Century. The Process of Redemption and Regulation of Easements in the Area of Middle Galicia’, as part of the SONATINA 1 competition (No. 2017/24/C/HS3/00129) funded by Poland’s National Science Centre.
Notes
1 There were deviations from the general rule. For example, the highlanders (gorale) of Zakopane, a town at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, owed no feudal labour and were allowed to own, among other lands, the mountain pastures — hale, similar to the Alpine tundra — on which they grazed their sheep (for example Hala Gąsienicowa) (Eljasz-Radzikowski Citation1895).
2 So-called commons could be an exception, attributed by the cadastre to the specific party (the village assembly or the manor) paying taxes for them. The right to use the commons (forests, meadows or pastures) could belong to serfs from one or more localities, clergy and landowners (Bujak Citation1908).
3 CSHAUL, cor. 146/64, vol. 145; 814–816; 954– 1015; 1705–1711; 1878–1890; 3589–3598; 4692– 4704; 4816; 5747–5758; 6267–6276; 6322–6323; 7080–7083; 71058–7187; 7358–7360; 7971–7976; 8875–8882; 10127–10133; 10426–10430.
4 So-called fascines (faszyny) formed an exception — forest litter, the thinnest elements of branches with leaves or needles. In times of greater demand (for example river flooding or spring thaw) these were not handed over to peasants but used for repairs on public and manorial roads, as well as for the reinforcement of riverbanks, dykes and canals (Thieriot Citation1856, pp. 69–70).
5 Tar — pitchy product of the distillation of timber (most often pinewood), used in human and veterinary medicine, as well as the maintenance and conservation of farm tools. It was a significant export product (Reinfuss Citation1990, p. 36).
6 Thicker firewood was issued to inns, schools, manorial officials, and so-called gracjaliści — grace pensioners, usually the manor’s former (for example retired) employees no longer fit for work and receiving their sustenance from the landlord. In larger estates, such as the Potocki holdings in Lviv and Łańcut districts, a retired gamekeeper or forest warden in the 1860s received an annuity of 105 guilders, firewood, and hay for cattle.
7 Kmiecie — husbandmen holding a full rola, that is more land than others, and with it the highest social standing in the peasant class (at least relative to landholding) (Rozdolski Citation1962, Stosunkipoddańcze, p. 272).
8 Zagrodnicy — peasant farmers holding less land and usually rendering their feudal labour on foot (no cart) (Rozdolski Citation1962, Stosunkipoddańcze, p. 277).
9 Chałupnicy — peasants with just a cottage and very little land, for example only a garden (Rozdolski Citation1962, Stosunkipoddańcze, p. 277).
10 Komornicy — peasants having neither land, nor a cottage. They usually lived with and worked for wealthier farmers or at the manor farm (Rozdolski Citation1962, Stosunkipoddańcze, p. 277).
11 Young trees (shorter than ½ metre), usually self- seeding.
12 Such was the case with Khyrivska Posada (Posada Chyrowska in Polish) in 1831, near what is now StaryiSambir in Ukraine. The peasants complained to the Austrian authorities against the increasing amount of unpaid feudal labour, such as water deliveries for grazing cattle, wood chopping, canvas spinning, carpentry works, stump digging, chaff cutting, and grain laying (CSHAUL, cor. 146/64, vol. 11857).
13 Łuczywo, szczapy, szczypy — coniferous wood parts (usually pine) with resin. Used, among other purposes, for providing light in peasant houses and farm buildings or lighting furnaces, stoves and hearths (Hołubiec Citation1990, pp. 18–21).
14 Wood ash was a significant export product. Back in the era of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, its importance was paramount. Under the feudal economy, the burning of ash, pitch or brown coal was very popular. The situation changed in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the development of railways (primarily the Kraków-Lviv mainline) and progressing industrialisation of the countryside (Broda Citation2000, p. 62)
15 Galician bushel — 1 bushel contained 32 garnce (1 bushel = 32 litres; 1 garniec or 1 Old Polish gallon = 3.8437 litres) (Ihnatowicz Citation1967, Vademecum do badań, p. 43).
16 Blichowanie — bleaching — a process for the whitening of cloth with the use of ash (for example fir ash). (Rocznik 1852. III. 109).
17 Cechowanie — the process of marking trees with an axe or special hammer for felling (Sylwan, 21, 1845, pp. 33–4).
18 Casing or timbering — reinforcement of the walls of wells or other water tanks (Barzycki Citation1907, p. 13).
19 Until 1858, the basic currency unit was the gulden (referred to in Galicia as the Rhenish guilder). During this period, the fractional unit was the kreutzer, of which there were 60 in a guilder (Ihnatowicz Citation1967, Vademecum do badań, p. 91).
20 Sprawozdania stenograficzne z posiedzeń Sejmu krajowego galicyjskiego we Lwowie odbytych od dnia 15. do 26. kwietnia 1861 r. (1861), pp. 298–367.