Property in Early Modern Societies. A Comparative Economic History.

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

European historical sources related to property in the early modern period have decisive regional differences. These variations are related to differences in the processes of bureaucratization and democratization.1. Each European region had an original inheritance system, which gave the historical documents of each region their own characteristics. Inventory control of private property was also conducted in some regions in Germany, but only in special regions such as Wurttemberg, where a partible inheritance system was used.2. Also, the impartible inheritance system created special documents such as an investigation of total local resources in Hessen. This investigation used a much different administrative process from that used in the inventory control of private property. Such a survey of villages and towns was managed in order to gain an understanding of local property as a whole rather than of individual private property.3. Historical materials in the Czech Republic, especially in south Bohemia, represent some of the best documents for use in historical demography and family history, because population registers were made in an annual census in this region. This was rare in early modern Europe. In such societies, the government considered the people in a given area to be the most useful local resources. Carefully investigated documents on landed property were also produced.4. Bureaucratization was also a varied process in early modern societies, and it produced various types of documentation. There existed many ways to understand the concept of property, as it referred not only to private property but also to collective resources in general.5. The state and the individual person each had their own will and purpose. Their various conflicting and common interests caused unique documents to be produced and brought about administrative settings that determined the inheritance patterns and family strategies in each region.