КАРЛОВЦИ – ДЕМОГРАФСКЕ И ЕКОНОМСКЕ ПРИЛИКЕ (1546–1590)
KARLOVCI – DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE (1546–1590)

Summary/Abstract: Among the most important features of the history of Southeast and Central Europe from the end of the XIV to the end of the XVI century were intense demographic changes. Researching its causes, courses and consequences is prerequisite for consideration of the continuity between the medieval and the early modern societies and cultures. This paper, above all, should highlight the existing gap in the contemporary demographic studies of the Southeast European early modern history, showing that in the second half of the sixteenth century, according to the Ottoman fiscal records, the largest agrarian settlement inhabited by the peasants of Serbian origin – Karlovci (modern day: Sremski Karlovci), were placed outside the borders of medieval Serbian Despotate. This curiosity confirms a well known fact that the Ottoman military expansion and their peacetime fiscal strategy, from XIV to XVI century, provoked large-scale migration waves, thus significantly and permanently reshaping the demographic and socio-economic structure of the Southeast European societies. In the first section of this paper are presented basic demographic data from the Ottoman fiscal books related to the Christian population inhabiting former territories of medieval Serbian Despotate (Ottoman sanjaks of Kruševac, Vučitrn, Smederevo and Prizren) as well as the Sanjak of Syrmia. Comparison of the data for ten largest Christian settlements in each of the five aforesaid Ottoman administrative units shows that Karlovci were the largest Christian settlement in the Sanjak of Syrmia, with a population of about three to ten times larger then in the best populated Christian settlements in Sanjaks of Kruševac (Bukovica), Vučitrn (Priština), Prizren (Prizren) and Smederevo (Miloševac). According to the census of 1546, there were noted 466 fiscal houses (should not be confused with households) and 86 widows in Karlovci, but demographic values were at their peak around 1552/53, when Ottoman officials noted 691 fiscal houses and 85 widows. During the last few decades of the XVI century there was a decline in population. The second section of the paper considers the structure of the male personal names that Ottoman officials registered at Karlovci during the second half of the XVI century. Even though this kind of analysis could give approximate values only, it seems obvious that Karlovci represented a mixed settlement in terms of ethnic origin and confessional structure of its population. The Hungarian and Slavic inhabitants of the non-Orthodox denomination (they were mostly Calvinists) were a minority of about 10–20% of the total population. The largest number of the registered householders (about 80–90%) or they fathers, had personal names of Slavic origin (names with the roots: Vuk-, Drag-, Mil-, Rad- and others) as well as specific forms of the Christian names, that are quite frequently encountered in the Ottoman surveys of Sanjaks of Kruševac, Vučitrn, Prizren and Smederevo (e.g. Jovan – John, but also: Аćim – Joachim, Kostadin – Constantine, Kuzma – Cosmas, Lazar – Lazarus, Mihajlo – Michael, Pantelija – Pantaleon, Prokopije – Procopius, Trifun – Triphon). In the XVI century most of these names are rarely noted or not recorded at all among the Hungarians or non-Orthodox Slavic population in the Sanjaks of Požega and Pakrac in modern day Croatia. Root causes for such density of agrarian population in Karlovci cannot be completely determined. One of the key factors surely was an advantageous geographic position of Karlovci on the Danube riverside, encircled to the south by hills suitable for growing grapes. It was the enormous grape production (about 30% of total production in Sanjak of Syrmia) that enabled this town to take one of the leading positions among the most profitable fiscal units in Sanjak of Syrmia. As a direct consequence, almost all timarforming taxes from Karlovci became part of imperial hass. This paper concludes with the spreadsheets showing the structure of the timar-forming taxes in Karlovci.

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