- Folwark
"Folwark" ( _lt. Palivarkas) is a Polish word for the giant
farm s (inLatin , "latifundia") that were operated in theCrown of Poland from the 14th century andGrand Duchy of Lithuania since 15th century, from the second half of 16th century in the joint statePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and survived after partitions of Commonwealth inRussian Empire until the early 20th. Purpose of Folwarks was to produce surplus produce forexport . The first "folwark"s were created on church- andmonastery -owned grounds; later they were adopted by both nobility ("szlachta ") and rich peasants (singular: "sołtys").The term "folwark" came into the
Polish language in the 14th century from the German "Vorwerk" ("farmhouse before a manor or city").Creation of the "folwark"s was boosted by growing demand for grain and the profitability of its export, both to
Western Europe and inside Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This in turn led to the creation ofserfdom , when land owners discovered that instead ofmoney -based rent andtax es it was more profitable to force thepeasantry to work on folwarks. Folwark-based grain export was an important part of the economy of thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth .In Poland serfdom was regulated (and increased) by the
Act of Piotrków andAct of Toruń . With the fall of agriculture goods prices in the end of 17th century, the folwark economy was in crisis, and szlachta attempts to increase production by increasing folwarks' area (usually by appropriating peasant lands) and labour (usually by increasing work demand for peasants) only compounded the economic crisis and further worsened the fate of the peasants, who had been, until then, no poorer than their average counterparts in Western Europe.In Lithuania serfdom was fully established during
Wallach reform in the middle of 16th century.Until the end of the 18th century folwarks remained the basis for szlachta economic and political power. After the
abolition of serfdom in Poland (1807, byNapoleon ), folwarks used paid labor.Folwarks were abolished by the
People's Republic of Poland with thePKWN decree of6 September 1944 about agricultural reform. After the end ofSecond World War folwarks were nationalised (resulting in PGRs - state-owned folwarks, Polish "Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne") or partitioned, usually with no or little compensation to their owners.See also
*
fiefdom
*hacienda
*ranch
*Serfdom
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