Umowy między dziedzicami a chłopami w zasobie Archiwum Państwowego w Łodzi (1807–1846)
THE CONTRACTS BETWEEN LANDLORDS AND PEASANTS IN THE RESOURCES OF THE STATE ARCHIVE IN ŁÓDŹ (1807–1846)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the relations between peasants and landlords in the period between the issuing of the December Decree (1807) and the publication of the June Act (1846). The constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw granted peasants personal freedom and announced the introduction of the Napoleonic Civil Code, which was to abolish feudalism. However, the December Decree, which was issued shortly afterwards, determined that squires should be considered owners of peasant farms, and not the peasant working there, according to the new capitalist understanding. In 1846, the so-called June Act significantly limited the possibility of ousting peasants by squires as it restored the concept of dominium directum et utile for farms with at least three acres of land. The aim of the present paper is to answer the question to what extent the Napoleonic Code affected the relations between the squires and the peasantry. A detailed analysis of the five contracts concluded at that time which are in the State Archive in Łódź suggests that modern French law had very little impact on property relations in the Polish countryside. In fact, the contracts between squires and peasants resulted in legal arrangements described as dominium directum et utile, although this institution was not even mentioned in the Napoleonic Code.

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