The socage regulation of Maria Theresa in the languages of the South Slavic peoples of Hungary

Abstract

The socage regulation of Maria Theresa (1767-1774) raised the relationship between landlords and villeins from the sphere of civil law to the competence of public law and at the same time it formulated exactly the socage services of the peasants which depended on the size and on the quality of the lands they held. The lands held in villeinage was a basic economic unit in the Hungarian Kingdom the size of which determined the amount of tax and socage services of the villein. This system of taxation and socage services was unknown in countries to the East of Hungary and in the Balkans. The commitments and obligations of the villeins working on a whole unit of land were detailed in the socage tenure regulations, whereas the villeins working only on a part of a unit of land were ordered to provide their services according to proportion. The commitments and obligations of the villeins and the serfs in the socage tenure system were listed by name in the so-called Tabella [Table], attached to the socage tenure regulations. During the process of regulating the socage tenure system, the settlements under subjection to landlords were given uniform socage tenure regulations all over the country, and it was the task of the county-level officials responsible for the enforcement of the socage tenure regulation to register the local data into these documents.