Page 123 - Changing Living Spaces

The Transformation of the Migratory Strategies of the Rural Population

of the eighteenth century. In the interests of free movement of labour and
in conformity with the principle of reciprocity, the manorial officers ap-
proved, except for some cases, all the applications that were submitted
for permission to change overlords or place of residence.
The analysis of the historical sources carried out in this article makes
clear that acts of migration took place among all classes of rural society,
but especially among those persons, whom the inheritance law did not
guarantee taking over a family landholding.27 Possession of a landholding
was a key factor that influenced the spatial mobility of Bohemian serfs.
In the light of the historical sources analysed in this article, it is possible
to demonstrate the existence of a rural society which was not static but
rather quite dynamic, in the sense that spatial movement played a signif-
icant role.28

Acknowledgement
The research for this article was supported by the Czech Science
Foundation/Grantová agentura České republiky (project No 21-16050S:
‘Recruits, deserters, invalids, and veterans. Military service and its influ-
ence on the structure of the rural family in South Bohemia, 1780–1830’).

Archival sources
SDAČB, tA, Ss: State District Archive in České Budějovice, České
Budějovice Town Archive, Stará spisovna.
SrAt, PrrC, PD: State Regional Archives Třeboň, Parish registers of
Roman Catolic Church, Parish Districts, Sbírka matrik Jihočeského
kraje.

References
Andersson, M. 2018. Migration i 1600-talets Sverige: Älvborgs lösen 1613–
1618. Malmö: Universus Academic Press.
Beauvalet-Boutouyrie, S. 2008. La population française à l’ époque moderne:
Démographie et comportements. Paris: Belin.

27 From the point of view of Bohemian inheritance law, it was not permitted to di-
vide a serf´s landholding. If a couple had several offspring, only one of them
(usually a son or a daughter´s husband) was entitled to take over the family hold-
ing. All the other offspring were supposed to get an inheritance share and were
expected to seek their living outside the family home (Procházka 1963, 453–
511).
28 The idea of a rural society that was not static but rather very dynamic has also
been demonstrated for Sweden and Poland (Andersson 2018, 239–51; Wyżga
2019, 405–10).

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