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Editor's choice Serfs and the city: market conditions, surplus extraction institutions, and urban growth in early modern Poland

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  • Mikołaj Malinowski

Abstract

I investigate the relation between institutions, markets, and preindustrial economic growth. In particular, I analyze the impact of coercive agricultural class structures on urban population growth in Poland. My main point is that the impact of the demesne economy based on serfdom on urban growth was neither inherently negative nor positive. Instead, I suggest that the effect of serfdom depended on market conditions. I propose a new mechanism that explains how higher monetary and labor duties charged by landlords to their enserfed tenant farmers could have made urban settlements more resilient to a market crisis. I find empirical support for this idea with use of new database on urban settlements.

Suggested Citation

  • Mikołaj Malinowski, 2016. "Editor's choice Serfs and the city: market conditions, surplus extraction institutions, and urban growth in early modern Poland," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(2), pages 123-146.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:ereveh:v:20:y:2016:i:2:p:123-146.
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Dennison,Tracy, 2011. "The Institutional Framework of Russian Serfdom," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521194488, September.
    2. Sheilagh Ogilvie & A. W. Carus, 2014. "Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective: Part 2," CESifo Working Paper Series 4862, CESifo.
    3. J.Baten & J.Wallusch, 2005. "Market Integration and Disintegration of Poland and Germany in the 18th Century," Economies et Sociétés (Serie 'Histoire Economique Quantitative'), Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), issue 33, pages 1233-1264, July.
    4. Persson,Karl Gunnar, 1999. "Grain Markets in Europe, 1500–1900," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521650960, September.
    5. Domar, Evsey D., 1970. "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 18-32, March.
    6. Ogilvie, Sheilagh & Carus, A.W., 2014. "Institutions and Economic Growth in Historical Perspective," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 403-513, Elsevier.
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    Cited by:

    1. Geloso, Vincent & Kufenko, Vadim & Arsenault-Morin, Alex P., 2023. "The lesser shades of labor coercion: The impact of seigneurial tenure in nineteenth-century Quebec," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Baten Joerg & Szołtysek Mikołaj & Campestrini Monica, 2017. "“Girl Power” in Eastern Europe? The human capital development of Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries and its determinants," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 21(1), pages 29-63.
    3. Elena Korchmina & Mikołaj Malinowski, 2024. "How extractive was Russian Serfdom? Income inequality in Moscow Province in the early 19th century," Working Papers 0266, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    4. Matthias Morys, 2022. "Has Eastern Europe Always Lagged Behind the West? Historical Evidence from Pre‐1870," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S1), pages 3-21, April.
    5. Mikołaj Malinowski & Jan Luiten Zanden, 2017. "Income and its distribution in preindustrial Poland," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 11(3), pages 375-404, September.
    6. Mikołaj Malinowski, 2016. "Little Divergence revisited: Polish weighted real wages in a European perspective, 1500–1800," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 20(3), pages 345-367.
    7. Marcin Wroński, 2023. "Income distribution in Warsaw in the 1830s," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 27(4), pages 581-605.
    8. Peter Sandholt Jensen & Cristina Victoria Radu & Battista Severgnini & Paul Sharp, 2018. "The introduction of serfdom and labour markets," Working Papers 0140, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).

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