Village community unravelling from Campulung-Muscel area.
Kurtuhuz, Andreea Maria ; Radu, Daniela Liana ; Baciu, Gheorghe 等
1. INTRODUCTION
The present study intents to elucidate the main causes of Romanian
village communities unravelling-especially on the case of Mosnens
village communities from Campulung-Muscel area- and the elements
involved in this process, which has its beginnings in feudalism appearance in Romanian Lands (aprox. the X-th century) and slowly
evolutes, but more and more virulent to the last century.
2. VILLAGE COMMUNITY UNRAVELLING
The feudal occurrence in Romanian Countries marks a point over the
village community unravelling beginning; so, from them, it is detaching
by enrichment, a lord class that seize the villages, meaning the annuity
in nature and work from the peasants. This seizing dates before Romanian
feudal states formation and the penetration of Hungarian feudal in
Transylvania. The Mosnens village community unravelling from
Campulung-Muscel area followed the natural course of village community
disintegration from the whole extra Carpathians Romanian area. Also as
the other village communities, they have their roots in the
transformations occurring in time, in the primitive era.
The village community always represents with its solidarity, a
defensive way for peasants' freedom in the feudal period. It must
be said that Romania was one of the few European countries that kept the
possession of joint property until the XX-th century, revealing that
villages of free peasants gathered together in village community, they
couldn't be totally enslaved, succeeding to remain free, despite
lords' wishes for their work slavery.
About the role played by village communities throughout our
history, the report from 1903 of Ion Anastasescu Ghica, the president of
MosnensVillage Community Administration Committee from Campulung in the
early XX-th century, observes: "there where the mosnens'
institution is still conserved, there where it still exists a small
piece of old Romanian bravery and virtue, there where we still hear the
sweet Romanian voice, the National Costume is still wear, stubbornly are
conserved the traditions and the habits, there where life and living are
easier, the good material status is blooming. In the other parts of the
country, where the Mosnens and yeomen disappeared, there had also
disappeared and altered the Romanian habits and traditions and the
Romanian way of being, all these characteristics of hospitality,
humanity, honesty, virtue and bravery that were the pride of Romanian
people"(Anastasescu, 1909).
The village community couldn't resist to commodity-money trade
development. The community village couldn't resist to the opening
market, to the internal commercial links, to production and crafts
increase, to differentiation work. Being a closed economic community,
the village community is losing its way into a society where individual
work is differentiated and where the economic autarky leave place to
commodity trade. So, land property in the village community is
transforming into individual possession and the seizing of free village
community by feudal who buy and invade the lands, is more increasing.
The fact that in Romanian Countries, the village community took place
for a longer period of time and that it was stronger than most of
European countries, it is due to a weak development of Romanian cities,
the main factor for intern market development.
The possession of joint property disintegration of village
community land passed throw several phases: the first individual
property was the house, with its household, while the rest of the land
was possessed in common. The second phase was individual family property
of agricultural plots by draw, on limited time. The third was the
hereditary possession of those plots, but the forests, the waters, the
pastures remained in collective property. So, the disintegration is
coming from inside, creating wealth differentiation for peasants. In its
biological simple form, it is the result of villagers' natural
breeding.
One of the main causes for wealth differentiation is work
differentiation. The village crafts develop and so are enrichment and
differentiation spreading people. In the free villages it was very
spread a village craft-the bakery. One of natural occupation of the
Mosnens from the Fagaras edges was also butchery because it was favoured
by hills and mountain geography rich in pastures. On 22-nd October 1695,
Constantin Brancoveanu spoke about another specific occupation in that
area so rich in horned: " some butchers' from Cdmpulungu and
from Rucar and from Dragoslavele" (Trambaciu, 1997). And the trade
made by the villagers outside the villages' bounds brought a wealth
differentiation. In 1505, in a paper of Radu the Great was written:
"the Lotrens that were merchants and were carrying shopping from my
country or from Hungarians, they should pay custom duties" (Stahl,
1998).
Within this context, Campulung, being placed on the intersection of
main commercial roads, it had a favoured area position for goods trade
development with the close villages, but also with far away villages.
The city started to produce also for trade needs and that led to a
crafts development, a production increase and a work differentiation; in
these conditions, the village community began to crumble, slowly in the
beginning, but faster and faster starting with XVII-th century.
In the middle of XVII-th century, Paul de Alep wrote about carting
that was a payable occupation: "the rent that those carters take
for transport is indeed very huge, really exaggerated". The Mosnens
from Campulung also did carting, but only with lords' delegacy.
Campulung was situated on a road that bound Romanian Country by
Transylvania, so it influenced the trade development, the
commodity-money relation inside the village community; that would
reflect in the possession of joint property' transformation in
individual possession.
The village community property was undermined also by religious
settlements; the monastery increased its dominium gaining ground on
village community plots, collecting tools or wagers from Mosnens.
Following the wealth differentiation, some villagers became poor
whose plots had been reduced by successive divisions, by plenty tolls,
by wars, sickness. For example, in XVII century, it appeared a new
expression -"Colibasi" for the poor people living in the
village and instead of living in houses, they were living in huts, being
considered the village community poor.
As it was expected, the village couldn't be anymore a social
unit as different social classes were already formed. The village
community land property disintegration in individuals' property was
unequal made on Romanian Countries area. Some villages remain until
later times with a communal property; others were earlier divided in
plots for different owner.
Even in the XIV-th century it can be found pieces of
"ocina" in Romanian Country. Inside village community
property, the delimited property coexisted with possession on joint
property for a long period of time. In 1597, Grosii village, Serbu,
Stoian, Anca and others possessed their plots as possession on joint
property, but others as Felea, Valente, Radu and other people had bought
their plots or they had received them as dowry.
Another cause of disintegration was also the penetration of foreign
elements in the village community and the most frequent in the XVI-th
and XVII-th centuries was met to lords who were buying parts of village
community land and they theoretically became members of the village
community. The lords get a little part of land, but they increase it in
a progressive manner and that kind of progressive seizure of village
land was more and more often met.
Gheorghe Gh. Dobrin, the secretary of Mosnens village community
from Arefu said about strangers who come to seizure the land: "the
big thieves came and with ruses and false papers put their hands on
Mosnens green gold. And the processes with all kinds of invaders were
lasting for hundreds of years, but people became always poor, but they
fought eve with their life sacrifice and I don't have enough time
to describe how many troubles strangers brought in our ancestral hearth.
I stop only on the day of 2nd of August 1861, when with the price of
12.701golds, the Arefu Mountains, the slept Iordache Filipescu House
property, had been bought by Mihail Hagiu Stefan, who became inhabitant in Capataneni village and he put a milestone on Magurela ridge. And his
son, George Stefanescu, to whom a statue was built in the yard house, on
2nd of April 1882, he made an act for peace and gave to Mosnens a
surface of 750 hectares from the milestone till the Bad Valley, and the
rest of the mountains was bought in exchange of one square meter box
full of money by the German Emil Lesel, came from Hamburg, Germany"
(Anastasescu, 1909).
Besides the lords, other foreign elements were able to penetrate
the village community area. Many wealthy merchants bought land and
invest their money in plots from that area. In 1597, Mihai fromTargsor
bought "ocina" from several Mosnens from Popesti, becoming
feudal owner in that village. Therefore, at the end of XVII-th century,
on different ways, a massive penetration of foreign elements had been
made in village community lands, rushing to its winding up to which had
a contribution also to the internal disintegration of village community.
A very interesting moment was when the Roma people began to take up
their residences on village community lands, frequently creating
conflicts between them and villagers. That phenomenon continues also
today, as an example, it is showing us a newspaper from Muscel area: the
taking up of residence of ethnics from Cetateni and Pravat Big Valley on
"Cetafuia Negru Voda" Monastery land, respectively on Namaesti
Mosnens Village Community, created plenty dispute in the area. Very
often the instance made a decision and the owners won the causes and it
followed the land release of Roma cottages from the two localities.
An important source about the life of Mosnens village community
from Campulung is given by I. Ghica: "Especially the Mosnens from
Campulung lived from bad to worse, most of all when the strangers from
the other side of Danube came and sit in the time of Phanariot regime
when the prescriptions of royal decrees weren't taken in count
anymore; those decrees absolutely forbid the wealth alienation of
village community towards strangers to community, even if they were
Romanian people or foreign people, chancellors or particulars, clergymen
or laymen" (Anastasescu, 1909).
In the XVI-th century occurred the phenomenon named wager, meaning
mortgage on land. In case of loaning, if the debtor couldn't pay
his debt, the pledge land remained to the creditor. This institution can
be considered as the forerunner for land tenancy which occurred in the
XVIII-th century.
We can date the beginning of village community crumble in connexion
but also as a consequence of an increasingly occurrence of
commodity-money trade, meaning the end of XVI-th century and beginning
of XVII-th century. The signs of that process were the occurrence of
usury and currency devolution.
3. CONCLUSION
This research tries to present succinctly the causes, the elements
and the modalities in which this old institution- the village community-
slowly disappeared from history, crumbling and dissolving in forms of
civilization which although modern, they are axiological inferior to
village communities.
From ancient times until the XX-th century, the village community
represented the structural and functional base unit of the society.
Nowadays, in the current society evolution, morally perverted and led by
a more and more acute sense of individual property, by a destructive
individualism, by a lack of solidarity between people, the study of the
way that the organisation manifests, of the working, of the cohabitation and of the mentality of people from the village communities, it
represents one of the multitude moral elements that history has given to
us. The village community represents an excellent example of social
solidarity, of local traditions and national particularities'
perpetuation, priceless values that in the current globalisation
process, much of our conational people had forget.
4. REFERENCES
Anastasescu, I.G.; (1909). The village community of Campulung. Its
past and history,) Gh.N. Vladescu tipography and bookshop, Campulung
Parnuta, Gh.; Trambaciu, St.;(2001). The history of Mosnens village
community from Rucar-Muscel, Arges, Ed. Semne, ISBN 973-654-143-6,
Bucuresti
Rautescu, I.;(2009). Campulung-Muscel. Historical monograph, Ed.
Ars Docendi, ISBN 978-973-558-420-7, Bucuresti
Stahl, H.;(1998). Contributions to the study of Romanian joint
Property villages, vol.1, Ed. Cartea Romaneasca, ISBN 973-23-0645-9
(note bibliografice), Bucuresti
Trambaciu, St.; (1997). The history of village community from
Campulung-Muscel in Middle Ages and the first half of XIX-th century,
Ed. Semne, Bucuresti
