There is still a widespread belief that the peasantry was an incapacitated and objectively treated element of the manorial-serf system and, simultaneously, a brutally exploited victim of this system. The article proposes an analysis of the peasantry’s position based on the assumption of the existence of the subjectivity of this most numerous social group. This subjectivity resulted, among other factors, from the labour market’s demand for labour, which required a certain flexibility on the part of the manors, but also from peasant activity in local markets. This activity interacted with the entrepreneurship and wealth of some peasants. This activity made peasant entrepreneurship possible, and even enabled some to become wealthy. In this way, it is also possible to understand their appearance in the municipal courts and their particular prominence and capacity to manage their own affairs in relation with other social estates in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Source: Wyżga M. (2023). Subjectivity of the Old Polish Peasantry. Kwartalnik Historyczny. №CXXX. 4: 771-792
Source web-site: https://www.kh-ihpan.edu.pl/images/KH2023-4/04_Wyzga.pdf
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