The Socio-Economic Mobility of Peasants in the Late Middle Ages. The Cheb District in the Years 1438-1456
Abstract
The study tests models explaining the nature of socioeconomic stratification, differentiation and intergenerational property mobility of the late medieval peasantry. The Cheb District (Egerland) is a studied region, for which unique fiscal sources have been preserved. For the period 1438-1456, we analyse (1) the dynamics of the property inequality among the peasants, (2) the degree of the continuity of the holders and families on the farmsteads, (3) the relationship between the monetary value of the property and the property mobility within the life cycle of the family and (4) the importance of the monetary value of the property for the intergenerational transfer of material wealth. The result of the analysis is the conclusion that (i) the stratification of the peasantry did not change very much; (ii) wealthy families remained on the farmsteads more often than the poor, (iii) the property position of the wealthy families remained relatively stable, although their large land property could be divided among more offspring. This conclusion corresponds best to the model of the uneven reproduction, which emphasizes the different reproductive possibilities and socio-economic mobility of wealth and poor families and also indicates the differences between the individual offspring of the wealthy.