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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 January 2017
“Serfdom” is one of those conventions of historical nomenclature which, like “feudal” or “medieval,” are intended to bring together in concept a number of similar elements for common consideration. Very often we are inclined to forget that the elements composing the whole may bear many marks of dissimilarity as well as marks of likeness. We should be on guard, then, not to allow the convenience of conventional terms to blind us to the great variety of characteristics and variations in quality to be found in the thing named. “Serfdom,” just like “feudalism,” means different things at different times and places, and it is well for us from time to time to examine more closely the several manifestations of it to determine if there may be important differences distinguishing one type from the other, even though they all seem to sail under the same colors.
1. See, for example, Francis, Dvornik, The Slavs in European History and Civilisation (New Brunswick, 1962), p. 1962 Google Scholar, and Heymann, Frederick G., John Zizka and the Hussite Revolution (Princeton, 1955), p. 480 Google Scholar.
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5. Jerome, Blum, “The Rise of Serfdom in Eastern Europe,” American Historical Review, 62 (July 1957): 814–17 Google Scholar.
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8. Howard, Kaminsky, A History of the Hussite Revolution (Berkeley, 1967), p. 386 Google Scholar, reports that the city of Tabor nevertheless collected its full dues from the peasants when the due-date arrived. See also Heymann, , John 2izka, p. 98 Google Scholar.
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10. Ibid. Dvornik, The Slavs, p. 335.
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13. Ibid., pp. Ill ff.
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19. For a good description of seventeenth and eighteenth-century serfdom in Bohemia see Karl Griinberg, Die Bauerbefreiung und die Auflosnng des gittshcrrlich-b'dncrlichcn Verhdltnisses in Bohinen, M'ahren und Schlesien, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1893-94), and Krofta, Dejiny, passim.
20. For a brief outline of the peasant's circumstances after the White Mountain see Wright, William E., Serf, Seigneur, and Sovereign (Minneapolis, 1966), pp. 13–20 Google Scholar.
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23. Mika, , Poddany lid, pp. 134 ffGoogle Scholar., describes social differentiation of Bohemian peasant society.
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27. Wright, Serf, Seigneur, and Sovereign, is a study of the eighteenth-century reforms.
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30. For texts of the several patents see Josef, Kalousek, Archiv Cesky, 25 (1910): 9–30Google Scholar.
31. Jerome, Blum, Noble Landowners and Agriculture in Austria, 1815-1848 (Baltimore, 1948), esp. chaps. 3, 5, and 6Google Scholar.
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