178
UIíio URY i ü A U S T R I A N Hl
V O L U W E XXÍ! (1G 91)
HOUK Itt YIBVS
-y i X
vvholly accidental, is the o m ission in the b ib lio g ra p h y of an old b ú t su re- ly n ő t o u td a te d w o rk by H e n r y F.
Schvvarz,
The Imperial Priiy Council in the Seventcenth Centim
/ (C a m b rid g e, Mass., 1943). Second, and mucii m ore serious, the one-and-one-half-page in dex, a brief list of seem inglv random en- tries, serv es no d iscern ib le p u rp o se.Cuycrs of such an expensive book de- se rv e m ore from the p u b lish e r th a n this.
F lughes's stu d v m ákos sig n ifican t p o in ts ev en if the M eck len b u rg an d East Frisian d isp u íes them selves mav nőt have had lasting im portance. In the form er case, the privileges of the no- bles vvere upheld in 1755, nőt by a deci- sión of the aulic council bút by Prussia's Frederick the Great, acting as arbiter.
The resu ltin g State c o n stitu tio n sur- vived u n til 1918 as the m ost n earlv
" f e u d a l" in G e rm a n y . As fó r F ást Frisia, Prussia had the last w ord there as well, by an n ex in g the co u n tv out- right after the death of its prince vvith- o u t h e irs in 1744 a n d by tre a tin g it su b se q u e n tly as a favored p rovince.
Undeniably im portant, hovvever, is the docum ented evidence of efforts to en- hance V iennas influence in vvavs more com m only identified vvith subsequent actions first of Maria Theresia and then of Joseph II.
Franklin L. Ford Harcaid Universitu
K ris tó , G y u la . /)
v á r m e g y é k k i a l a k u l á s a M a g y a r o r s z á g o n[The Devel- o p m e n t of th e C o u n ty in H u n g a r y ]. B u d a p e s t: M a g v e tő , 1988.
Pp. 465.
King St. Stephen (d. 1038) had desig- nated forts,
civitatcs,
as centers of the royal d o m ain sp read over the realmand piacod a head officer,
conics ca$tri,
in ch arg e of the in h a b ita n ts in every fórt district,pagus.
There vvere an cien t forts, such as K om árom , F szterg o m , Győr, an d Sopron; and new ones vvere búi 11 and nam ed after the first head offi- cial assigned to them . Pereslavasburch, fór in s ta n c e , b ecam e P r e s s b u rg , o r Pozsony. Secular and ecclesiastical ad- m inistrators acted in harm ony, and the form er su p p o rted the chu rch ad m in is- tration. Various íields of law handled bv the State, such as m arriage or vvitch- i raft, vvere fused intő the legal jurisdic- tion of the church. O rdeals vvere held b eío re ch u rch officials, th o u g h it re- m ained the du tv of secular au th o rity to presenl a case in a court of law. C onse- quently, the o rganization of ecclesiastical an d to m p o rai m a tte rs d e velő p e d along parallel línes.
I lié m onarch developed his adm inis- trativo county System fully in the terri- tory of the ecclesiastical p ro v in c e of Fsztergom and in the Kalocsa diocese, lator a church province itselt. E szter
gom , F eh érv ár, S o p ro n , a n d ’ M o so n b ecam e a d m in is tra tiv e c e n te rs vvith som é 40 established forts. The royal econom ic d om ain in the fórt d istric t, the fórt stevvardship or
comitalus civi- tntis,
vvas, like the Bav'arian and Frank- ish c o u n tie s, n ő t a closed te r r ito r ia l u n it. In his fo u n d in g c h a rte r fór the Veszprém bishopric, the king depicted th e c o u n try s u r r o u n d in g th e fó rt aspagus civitatis,
a deseription changed tomega civitatis
in the laté eleventh cen- tury. T he c o u n ty actu ally c o m p rise d priváté agricultural holdings scattered around in an area u nder the econom ic, ad m in istrativ e, ju d icial, and m ilita ry jurisdiction of a royal head official, the reeve,conics,
distinct from the already developed church adm inistrative u n it in a given area. The county m aterial- ized as a geographical concept only in the latter thirteenth century.The elite strata of people, the
cívis
ormiles,
of the ag ric u ltu ra l fórt d istric tItOOK K IM ! WS 179
lato r forrnod th o eláss of iolutgioncs castri, w hose m em bors w ere froe tocul- tivate land they had rcceived in perpe- tuity írom the king in retu rn fór mi li
la ry sorvice. In timo of war they had to sorve undor tho reeve in tho ranks of tho c o u n ty d o ta c h m e n t. T he king alsó ostablishod bordér rogions, confiniorum, undor tho su p e rv isiu n of
tho "m arch io ." Tho laws of C olom an the Loarnod (d. 1116) m ention marchut, tho dofonsivo frontior zones. Tho bor
dér rogions in Transylvania romainod undor tho protoction ot tho "Prm ceps.
Ultrasvlvanus."
In his w ork, Kristó rosoarchos tho or- igins of tho countv, its dofinition, and tho rolationship b etw een tho secular and occlosiastical adm inistrations. I le rolios on n a rra tiv o so u rco s, such as A n o n y m u s ' Gcfta Htuuirorum, in his a n a ly s is of tho castlo (ai>!riim) an d carthon fórt (castcllum terremn) as con- tors of c o u n ty a d m in is tr a tio n . It is K ristó's v iew th a t A n o n y m u s su g - gosted a twofold origin fór tho countv:
either as an in stitu tio n dating back to tho H u n g árián co n q u est of tho mid- Danubo region in tho 89Üs or as tho ro- sult of Slavic influonco. This hypothesis w ill havo to be m o d ifio d now th a t m any scholars regard tho estatos of tho ru lin g fam ily as devolopod oconom ic c e n to rs th a t e x is te d as e a rlv as tho tenth century. A sentenco by tho com- piler of G erard of C sanád's Vita mnior says that King S tophen m ade C san ád the stew ard, princeps, over tho dom ain of the king's archenem v Ajtony and of the whole area ("com es illius p ro v in ciáé"), as well, aftor C sanád defeated Ajtony.
K ristó sees in tho u se of the term mega, w hich he defines as a given area (nőt as a co u n ty ), tho o rig in s of the w ord megc or megye. M agyar tor county, even though the term meg ti regii m eant, rathor, a closod u n it of tho roval d o m ain, as is evident írom aa. 12, 3b, and 37 of Colom an the Learned's Laws. In
his sludy of diplom atic sourcos, Kristó com es to tho conclusion that the social slructuro had in its dovolopm ont a terri- torial baso that had nlready existed in the tribal "stato" of tho A rpads, and he looks up o n King St. Stophen as founder of tho rovat county systom since, fór ex- am p le, the royal c h a rte r fór tho P a n nonhalm a abbey datod 1001 doseribod tho eomilaluí of Somogy.
The fórt plavod an im p o rtan t rolo in tho íorm ation of tho county, as is evi- dont írom its co ordinated cooperation w ith tho bishopric in torritorial adm in- istration. Liko diocese and viliágé, the countv, too, had b o u n d a rie s, as evi- doncod by tho 1009 founding ch arter fór tho V eszp rém b is h o p r ic th a t sp o k o aboul "torm iniis ot finibus." Kristé) is convincod that tho tribal poütical struc- tu r o a ífo c to d th e í o r m a t i o n of th e county. In döfining "county," Kristó ac- cepts the viows of P éter Vácz.y, statod in 1935 and in 1°5<8, that tho "county"
was a reál in stitu tio n of po w er cover- ing evervbody and ovorything in its ad- m inistration. Bálint I lóm an defined tho county based on its torritorial aiuplegal aspoets. Kristó, too, d istin g u ish es bo- twoen tho activitios of the co u n ty s and tho tort's ad m in istrativ e structures. As he soos it, tho co u n ty did nőt possess a soparale a p p a rá tu s fór its adm inistra- tion bofore tho laté th irteen th century, w hon tho royal officials of the fórt could onlv attond to im m odiato fort-rolatod m atters. K ristó, fo llo w in g in Vácz.y's footsteps, n o tes, fór in sta n c e , that in the m id-tw elfth c e n tu ry the stew ard of N ógrád c o u n ty re p o rte d on royal e s tatos in Zala county, w hich could nőt have b een u n d er the reeve's ju risd ic- tio n . K ristó co n clu d es that the reeve was still a m em ber of the king's entou- rago (comilnlus). O riginallv, the offico or com m ission of the reeve had b een a m ilitary one restricted to the fórt dis- trict and its in h a b ita n ts, to w h o m he ro p ro s o n to d th o m o n a r c h . In o th e r
\vords, tho county was a w ell-defined
1 8 0 BOOK RHVIEWS
area of a fórt district, in which the bish- o p ric w as in c iu d e d alo n g w ith the king's dom ain. Eventually, the reeve of the fórt had w ider authority and held ju r is d ic tio n ov er the affairs of the county which inciuded the fórt area. By the laté thirteenth century, because of the shrinking size of the royal domain, the reeve's authority declined, and the royal comitas feli apart. In the emerging new adm inistration it w as.lhe service n o b ility , fearfu l of th e in flu e n c e of the higher noblemen, who established themselves in power.
Kristó further depicts in depth the re- lationship betw een the tem poral and spiritual adm inistrations (pp. 208-35).
In a separate and detailed section of 251 pages he deals w ith the form ádon of som é of the counties. Endnotes (pp.
521-602) and a detailed bibliography (pp. 605-42) add to the value of this book. Its author has done a thorough job, indeed.
Z. J. Kosztolnyik Texas A&M University
Z i m á n y i , V e ra , e d .
Studien zurdeut- schen und ungarischen Wirtschaftsent- wicklung (16-20. Jahrhundert).
P ro - c e e d i n g s o f t h e fifth c o n f e r e n c e of E a st G e r m á n a n d H u n g á r i á n e c o - n o m ic h i s t ó r i á n s in D e b r e c e n , S e p - t e m b e r 2 3 -2 6 , 1980. B u d a p e s t: A k a d é m ia i K ia d ó , 1985. P p . 187.As w ith most conference proceedings, the topics in this collection of 18 articles rangé widely. However, despite the di- versity, the volum e does have som é areas of emphasis. Perhaps because the co n feren ce took piacé in D ebrecen, tw o-thirds of the articles are by Hun- garians and about topics in H ungárián economic history. In addition, roughly
tw o-thirds of the book is devoted to ag rarian c o n d itio n s in the s ix te e n th and seventeenth centuries. The other third deals w ith economic developm ent in the nineteenth and tw entieth cen
turies.
Unfortunatelv, the q u a lity of these articles is nőt uniform ly high. All are sh o rt, w ith several on ly four pages Iong, and one is left w ith the im pres- sion th a t so m é a u th o rs w ere h a r d - pressed to say anything significant in so limited a space. The first article in the bock, tor example, a survey of the economic geography of H ungary dur- ing the laté feu d al p e rio d by László Makkai, is alm ost exclusively descrip- tive and quite superficial description at that. Peter Beyer's contribution dealing with the impact of the First World War on industrial workers is alsó less than provocative: "In the state-m onopoly w ar econom y w hich differed signifi- cantly from the p re -w a r é ra , am o n g other things the whole of in^ustry was reoriented to arm am ents production as much as possible" (p. 167).
Zsigm ond Pál Pach's d iscu ssio n of the im p o s itio n in H u n g a ry of " d é r zweite Leibeigenschaft," on the o ther hand, is quite inform ative and despite its brevity offers som é interesting the- ses regarding that fascinating phenom - en o n . Pach m a in ta in s , fór ex am p le, that price increases ow ing to the con- flict betw een the H absburgs and the Porté, rather than the o p ening of an in- ternational m arkét as was the case in m ore n o r th e r ly r e g io n s of E a ste rn Europe, contributed to the rise of the s e c o n d s e r f d o m in H u n g a r y . T h e w ar-driven inflation of the six teen th century led H ungárián estate-ow ners to institute serfdom nőt because they could no longer afford to pay fór wage labor; in fact, they w ere in a better posi- tion to pay wages th an ever before, be
cause the price of agricultural products had reached new heights. Instead, it was the d e v a lu a tio n of m o n ey re n ts
