The Versatile Villeins

Villeins clearly served all the material needs of their landlord, but it is difficult to estimate the extent of individual obligations in the reconstituted system of villeinage. It seems, however, that what held true for the peasant society as a whole also held true for individual villeins. That society had to produce shepherds and dog-catchers, gamekeepers and furriers, carpenters and inn-keepers; similarly, each villein had to accomplish a variety of tasks.

The villeins had to be versatile to provide the vast variety of services produced by a village. Take three examples from the Kővár {2-198.} domain. In addition to cultivating his own field, a villein at Berkesz had to market some of his produce to earn cash for taxes; plough and sow the manorial fields; cut the hay in a field; clear a furze thicket; tend manorial vines; and transport wheat. They had to tend some or all of the horses, oxen, cows, steer, bullocks, pigs, and bees. In the neighboring village of Alsó-Fentős, the villein's obligations were similar, but he also had to deliver a quota of fox fur, marten fur, cows, hens, eggs, butter, peas, millet, and linseed. In nearby Kovás, the eighty villein households owned a total of six horses, 248 oxen, 57 cows, 82 steers, 65 sheep, 395 pigs, and 40 beehives; there were no manorial fields to tend, but the villeins were obligated produce lime, cut stone, and make bricks for the castle, as well as to transport hay, sand, and ice.

Thus, in these modest-sized villages, the villeins had to accomplish a great variety of tasks. Nor do the records account for all of the latter. Judging from lists of donations, villeins might also grow cabbage, trap deer, draw fish from rivers, creeks, and ponds, and operate mills and oil-presses. There is every reason to suppose that the vast pantries of the landowners were supplied by the villeins. The custom of the day called for reserves large enough to last a year, and these stocks included carrots, radishes, parsley, garlic and onions, lentils, spotted and white beans, and Turkish or common peas, as well as apples, pears, grapes, walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts. The pantries held great quantities of salted cabbage, cucumber, and even gooseberry, along with dried fruits and jams. Most places kept ordinary wine as well as hedge-wine, brandy, and honey beer. Storage required all manner of tubs, jugs, and other receptacles.

This list is still not exhaustive, for mention must be made of the village craftsmen, who also ran their own farms, while the villein farmers' households engaged in a variety of handicraft.

The multifaceted activities imposed on the villeins by changing demands would give rise, over time, to the development of specialized {2-199.} tools and to a growing division of labor. Ideally, these epoch-marking developments should be traced with regard to a basic production branch, but, in the case of Transylvania, no relevant artifacts and descriptive information has survived. The only sphere for which there is even approximative information is the kitchen. Kitchen inventories list numerous implements that have a similar function but vary in shape or material — thus separate pans for pies, doughnuts, and pancakes, or different types of sieves and colanders. Sources mention ordinary tables, kneading tables, and bread-making tables. Gardening tools include many types of hoes and shovels. Further research is required, for kitchen and garden utensils lay at the heart of daily life and are a good guide to technical progress. Their diversification and specialization in the early 1600s were representative of the general trend under way in Transylvania.

The existence of such specialized implements confirms the obvious, that the villeins needed considerable experience, skill, and knowledge to accomplish their multiple tasks. They had to understand the vagaries of weather, the rules of plant improvement, and the techniques for working different types of wood. As in the case of more intellectual pursuits, their knowledge can be inferred from the results of their work; not from books, sermons, or poems, but from their homes, farms, and well-stocked pantries.

The peasantry had always been a repository of practical knowledge, but this expanded significantly in the early 17th century, when the second serfdom put a premium on versatility. Apart from this obvious causal link, nothing is known about the generation of peasant knowledge, nor about its transmittal, except that this did not occur in written form. Their practical expertise was wholly independent of book culture and of the purveyors of theoretical knowledge. Treatises on practical knowledge had yet to be written.