АНАЛИЗА ДРЖАВНОГ ПОПИСА ИЗ 1720. ГОДИНЕ НА ПОДРУЧЈУ УГАРСКИХ ЖУПАНИЈА: Бачка и Бодрошка жупанија
ANALYSIS OF THE STATE CENSUS FROM 1720 AT THE TERRITORIES OF THE HUNGARIAN COUNTIES: Bač and Bodrog county

Summary/Abstract: The state census of the Kingdom og Hungary, that was conducted in 1720, was the most comprehensive survey among several censuses that were undertaken during the first three decades after the liberation from the Ottoman rule. It covered the entire territory of the Kingdom, both under civil and military administrations, including the counties of Bač (hun. Bács) and Bodrog, and also the neighboring military frontiers along the rivers Tisa (hun. Tisza) and Danube (territories now belonging to modern states of Serbia and Hungary). Despite the authorities’ intention for the census to include the entire population liable to taxation, some individuals obligated to pay taxes nevertheless managed to stay invisible and avoid the survey. The best indicator to support this claim are the results of the county census (provisionally speaking, the second census) also conducted in 1720, which showed that the population had grown by one-third that year, an outcome that could not have come about naturally and there is no record that any mass migrations in the area took place in this year. The censuses that followed in 1721 and 1722, which, although probably suggestive, might not be entirely reliable, support this conclusion. They yielded approximately similar data to those recorded in the second census of 1720, which is a more likely and logical assessment of the population at the time the censuses were conducted. The people had reasons to avoid the survey, and in larger urban centers and settlements with a dual administration (military and county authorities), it was easier to avoid the census clerks. A convenient circumstance that made it easier to avoid the census survey was that the census clerks came from the distant Máramaros County and were unfamiliar with the land or the situation in the counties of Bač and Bodrog. For all the deficiencies of this census in terms of comprehensiveness and, by extension, reliability, the collected and recorded data provide valuable evidence about the social circumstances of the time and gain additional importance when compared with later censuses conducted in the same territory.

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