Occupational structure in the Czech lands under the second serfdom

This article presents an analysis of occupational structure, a key component of the ‘Little Divergence’, in an eastern-central European economy under the second serfdom, using data on 6,983 Bohemian villages in 1654. Non-agricultural activity was lower than in western Europe, but varied positively with village size, pastoral agriculture, sub-peasant strata, Jews, freemen, female headship, and mills, and negatively with arable agriculture and towns. It showed a curvilinear relationship with the ‘second serfdom’, as proxied by landlord presence on village holdings. Landlord presence in serf villages also reversed the positive effects of female headship and mills on non-agricultural activities. Under the second serfdom, landlords encouraged serf activities from which they could extract rents, while stifling others which threatened manorial interests.We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Professor Dame Elizabeth Hill Fund at the University of Cambridge; the British Academy Small Research Grant Scheme; the Collaborative Project HIPOD, supported by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme for Research, Contract Number SSH7-CT-2008-225342; and the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, Grant Number 13-138485. Alexander Klein Snr, Lucie Matějková, and Václav Žďárek provided excellent research assistance. This project builds on the lifelong work of the late Václav Červený and we are grateful to him for allowing us to build upon the data he collected.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ehr.1211