An
Englishman Travels the Banat (early 1800s)
Excerpt from the book “Hungary and Transylvania”
by John Paget (London 1839)
… one of the most curious
features of the Banat is the motley appearance
of its inhabitants, who, as the different races
are generally in distinct villages, have
preserved their national characteristics quite
pure. In one village which, from the superiority
of its buildings, and from the large and
handsome school‑house, you at once recognize
to be German, you still see the old‑fashioned
costume of the Bavarian broom‑girl, and the
light blue eyes and sandy hair of their colder
fatherland... The Magyar and
the Ratz are equally characteristic and
distinct. In one place, I think Kánisa, on
finding the drivers spoke neither German,
Hungarian, nor Wallack the ear soon teaches one
to distinguish these languages ‑ I inquired of a
respectable‑looking person, who was standing in
the inn‑yard, from whence they were?
“Bulgarians,” he answered in German: “and it is
just one hundred years since they left Turkey,
and established themselves on this spot, under
the protection of the Emperor.” The size of the
village, and the appearance of the houses,
sufficiently bespoke them to be a prosperous and
flourishing colony. In some places, people of
two or three nations are mixed together, and it
not unfrequently happens, that next door
neigbbours cannot understand each other. The
different nations rarely intermarry, ‑ a Magyar
with a Wallack, never. I do not here enter into
the manners or customs of the inhabitants of the
Banat, because every nation retains its own, and
most of these, except the Wallacks we have
already spoken of, and of them we shall say more
when we get into Transylvania.
It is scarcely possible, in
passing through some of the German villages of
the Banat, such for instance as Hatzfeld, not to
exclaim as a Scotch friend of mine did, “Would
to God our own people could enjoy the prosperity
in which these peasants live.” It is, in fact,
impossible to imagine those who live by the
labour of their bands, enjoying more of the
material good things of the world than they do.
In addition to the richest land in the country,
the Banat peasant has many privileges peculiar
to himself, conferred when it was an object to
attract settlers from other districts, and these
be still preserves. Among other things he is
free from the “long journeys,” the “hunting,”
the “spinning,” the “chopping and carrying of
wood,” and from the tithe of fruit and
vegetables. He has, moreover, free rights of
fishing, of cutting reeds, and feeding his pigs,
and gathering sticks in his master’s forests,
many of which, though trifling in themselves,
give to the sober and industrious peasant, a
great opportunity to improve his position. But,
more than all, he has the liberty to redeem half
his days of labour, at the rate of ten kreutzers,
or five pence per day, an advantage of which he
never fails to avail himself.
From the last station, before we
arrived at Temesvar, a German peasant was our
driver, who, on my inquiring to whom the
village, Billiet (Billed), belonged, shook his head, and
said, “The Bishop of Agram.” I was sure that
portentous shake of the head meant something
sorrowful; and, as I never yet saw man in sorrow
that did not wish to tell his woes, I knew I had
only to encourage him, to get it all out; and
accordingly, from an inquiring look, he took
courage, pulled his horses up to a walk, and,
turning half-round on the box, began, “Why, sir,
Billiet, and many other villages round here
belong to the Bishop of Agram, who lives a long
way off, and keeps his prefects here. Now, sir,
this year the crops are very heavy, so the
prefect comes with the new urbarium (Census), and says, ‘I have the right to order you peasants to send from each house two men four days in each week during the harvest, that the corn may be the sooner in, and accordingly, I expect you to obey.’ But in our village, as indeed in all others, this urbarium, is kept, and many have read it carefully, and found nothing of the sort in it; for, on the contrary, it is stated that a peasant holding an entire fief (Fief,
in European feudal society, a vassal's source of income, held from his lord in exchange for services)
must send in
harvest time one man for four days in two weeks,
only, but then no more can be demanded for a
fortnight. And so, sir, the Biro thought also,
and he goes to the prefect to tell him his
orders were unjust, and that he could not put
them into execution. With that the prefect flies
into a passion, tells the judge his business is
to do what is ordered, not to bother his head
about what be does not understand, and calls him
a rogue, and other bad names which he did not
deserve, for he is a very honest man, and
respected by all the village. Determined not to
suffer such an insult, the Biro replied that he
neither could nor would act against the law and
his conscience, and said that if he was a rogue,
he could be no fit person to execute any longer
the duties of Biro, and he therefore begged to
lay down his stick of office. The next day the
prefect sent orders to the peasants to elect a
new Biro, but the peasants re-chose their former
one, declaring that they would obey no other;
and so at present the affair stands, no one
knowing how it will terminate.”
All these misfortunes, the poor
fellow seemed to think came from living under a
bishop, and he complained sadly that the Emperor
had so soon given them another after the death
of the last. “We had hardly done rejoicing that
our old Bishop was dead,” he continued, “when a
new one came in his place.”
It is a prerogative of the
Hungarian crown to retain the revenue of a
bishopric for three years, between the death of
one incumbent and the installation of another,
and it is very rarely that the right is not
taken full advantage of, but in the present
instance, the see remained vacant only six
months. It must not be supposed that the tenants
of the late bishop bore him any personal
ill‑will; indeed, as he lived in Croatia, and
they in the Banat, they could know very little
of him; but absenteeism begets no good‑will
anywhere, and the hope of being under the
officers of the Kammer or Exchequer for three
years, instead of the Bishop’s steward, would
more than have consoled them for the death of a
dozen such prelates. I believe I must let the
reader a little into the mysteries of this
Exchequer Stewardship, this Kammeral
Administration, before he can fully comprehend
the peasant’s joy at his Bishop’s death, or his
disappointment at his successor’s speedy
appointment.
The King of Hungary is heir, in
default of male descendants, of all fiefs male,
under which title most of the land in Hungary is
held, with the condition, however, that he
shall, when he sees fit, confer it on others, as
the reward of public services. All
newly‑conquered land of course belongs, in like
manner, to the crown, so that at one time, the
whole of the Banat, and the greater part of it
still, as well as many estates in other parts of
the country, are enjoyed by the king under this
title. The stewardship of such vast possessions
necessarily employs a great number of persons,
all of whom, particularly the inferiors, are,
according to the rules of the Austrian
Government, very badly paid. As might naturally
be expected under such a system, none but the
highest officers are insensible to the charms of
a bribe. If an estate is to be purchased, the
valuer must be fee’d that he may not over-value
it, the resident-stewart must be fee’d that he
may not injure him in another point, and the
clerks of the offices must also be fee’d in
order to induce them to open their books and
afford the necessary information. If the peasant
of the Kammer wishes to escape a day’s labour, a
fat capon, or a dozen fresh eggs make the
overseer of the Kammer forget to call him out;
if his land is bad or wet, and if a portion of
the neighbourhood farmed by the Kammer be
better, a few florins adroitly distributed to
the overseer, stewart, valuer, clerks, and
commissioners, make them all think it for the
Kammer’s benefit to exchange the good land for
the bad…
Notes: Some of the terminology
(and perhaps prejudices?) employed by the author
are typical of the mid-nineteenth century. Here
are some examples:
Kammer = higher government department (like today’s ministry) Fee'd = bribed Valuer = estimator of a property’s value+ Perfect = local representative of the Bishop of Agram, the feudal landowner Billiet = Billed/Biled Biro = reeve (mayor) Germans = Banat Swabians Hatzfeld = Zsombolya/Jimbolia Ratze = Serb Wallacks = Romanians
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