CHANGES IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF RURAL SETTLEMENT ON ROYAL LANDS IN PRE-PARTITION SZADEK DISTRICT

This article presents the results of geographical and historical research exploring rural settlement on royal lands within Szadek district in the pre-Partition period. In the first part the origins of the villages are examined, mainly on the basis of preserved documents, including their location and ownership/administrative status. They belonged either to a separate Szadek tenure or Sieradz starosty estate, or constituted isolated, small leaseholds on the monarch’s land. Next, analysis of socio-economic changes in the villages is carried out, based on tax registers of 1511, 1518 and 1552–1553, inspections and inventories of royal estates of 1564, 1616–1620, 1628–1632, 1659–1665, and hearth-tax rate of 1775. The study includes the demographic potential of the villages, their socio-agrarian structure, area, types of agricultural activity, profitability and sources of income, and the range of feudal dues. Dynamic and comparative research used in the study made it possible to identify development stages: period of economic prosperity and population growth (16th century), period of regress and depopulation (17th century), and period of restoration and economic reactivation (18th century)