Page 114 - Changing Living Spaces

Josef Grulich

were ceded to the lordship of the town of České Budějovice, whereas in
the opposite direction it was only one-third that number (32 serfs). The
clear superiority in the numbers of immigrants relative to emigrants pro-
vides evidence that the estate of the royal town of České Budějovice was
an attractive target destination for migrants.
What do these findings tell us about the ‘second serfdom’? Marxist
historiography traditionally emphasized the binding of serfs to the land.
This study does not provide evidence of complete restriction of serf mo-
bility by manorial lords. Nevertheless, we can observe efforts by lords to
exert control over migration. Temporary mobility by serfs was not made
conditional on the granting of a release letter. The assumption at the time
was that serfs would earn money to support themselves and then after a
time would return home. It was mainly in the case of the town and sub-
urbs of České Budějovice that an individual who wanted to undertake a
long-term working sojourn away from their estate of origin was not legal-
ized or organized until they got married.
It was only on the estate of Komařice, which was the property of the
Cistercian monastery of Vyšší Brod, can we observe a clear effort to get
back eight serfs who were working for wages on demesne-farms near
the town of České Budějovice in 1753. Referring to the ‘Renewed Land
Constitution of 1627’ (Jireček 1888, 456–566), the Vyšší Brod monastic of-
ficials demanded that their serfs not be employed on the estate of České
Budějovice without the permission of the lord. In reality, the interest of
the estate of České Budějovice in obtaining an outside labour force domi-
nated over observance of the legal requirements. Out of the total of 1,073
applications for release, only eight applications were rejected. Release
from serfdom was denied to those who first absconded and then applied
for legal release from serfdom. The reason for refusal by the lord may have
been that he wished to compel the individual to perform compulsory mil-
itary service or to retain an individual who specialized in an occupation
which was important from the viewpoint of the manorial economy.

Period of Processing Applications
Applications for release from serfdom were dealt with all year round.
Most of them were handled during January (176 cases, comprising 16.4
percent of the total) and October (152 cases, comprising 14.2 percent of
the total). Since most applications were related to marriage, the connec-
tion to the religious year is evident (Grulich 2000, 79). People were not al-
lowed to enter into marriage during Advent (December) or Lent (March

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