Agrarno Pitanje u Bosanskohercegovačkom Saboru 1910-1914
Agrarian Issue in The Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Period 1910-1914

Summary/Abstract: Agrarian issue in the Austro-Hungarian period of Bosnia and Herzegovina was a key economic social and political issue. Besides those that were directly concerned (landowners and farmers who worked on that land), it involved the representatives of authorities, and local political, even religious organizations. The stenograms of the sessions of Bosnian-Herzegovinian Assembly, as the main source for the paper, show that this issue was subject through the entire period of the functioning of the BH Assembly, both before and after the enactment of the Law on Optional Purchase of the Serf Farms in 1911. That is the reason why the author of this paper aimed at a comprehensive research of this issue as it was treated in the BH Assembly. He presents the arguments stated by the delegates to justify their desired solutions to the issue and draws attention to all the social issues initiated in relation to the agrarian issue – terminological and substantial ones alike (the scope of agrarian issue, the distinction between a serf and a lesser, origins of orthodox Christians and Muslims of Bosnia, motives of external colonization, etc.) Particular attention was paid to the attempt of revision of the Law on Optional Purchase that was linked to the outcome of the Balkan Wars. The analysis of the treatment of agrarian issue in the Assembly and relations among its delegates sheds light on the way the political forces treated the role of their Parliament in the case of one of the key issues that arose in the Austro-Hungarian period.

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