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Piotr Miodunka
Cracow University of Economics
The Subsistence Crisis of 1845-1847 in Austrian Galicia and Its Socioeconomic Background at the Macro and Micro Levels
Introduction
In the second half of the 1840s Galicia (nowadays part of Poland and Ukraine) was strongly
affected by a subsistence crisis. In 1847 the mortality rate rose to 78‰, i.e. more than twice
its ‘normal’ level. Galicia, with a population of 4.9 million (1847), was one of the poorest
provinces of the Habsburg Empire, dominated by a rural populace (about 75% in 1880) and a
manorial economy based on peasant serfdom. In spite of these circumstances, this was the
most substantial crisis caused by harvest failure since the beginning of the Austrian regime
(1772). This fact has not attracted particular interest among historians, however, because the
consequences of the two (and in some places three) years of poor harvests in the mid-1840s
were obscured by political events such as the Kraków Uprising, an attempted Galician
uprising (both in 1846), a peasant riot (1846), and finally the Revolution of 1848. The sole
fact of the famine and potato blight is known and often mentioned, but there are no detailed
studies of this crisis or indeed other similar crises in pre-industrial Poland.
The paper will be devoted more to the causes and short-term effects than to the long-term
consequences of the 1847 famine. It should be remembered that in 1848 serfdom was
abolished in the Austrian Empire and this was a key reason for the fundamental changes to
Galician farming in the following years.1
Subsistence Crises from the Mid-17th Century
Subsistence crises and famines affecting the territory of Poland have been inadequately
examined. As far as we know, like in many places in Europe, the first half of the 1690s was
very difficult, but the greatest food crises occurred in 1714/15 and 1736/37, both probably
induced by floods. The famines of the first half of the 1770s, which strongly affected
Germany and Bohemia, probably did not have such dramatic consequences in Poland. A
1
More precisely in 1848 peasants were granted ownership of the land they possessed, personal serfdom having
been abolished in the 1780s.
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similar situation occurred in 1785 – perhaps because of government support for residents (an
embargo on grain export, work on the construction of paved roads). There were some
mortality crises at the beginning of the 19th century, but mostly on the local scale (e.g. in 1806
in the Rzeszów district). The highest mortality before 1847 was noted in 1831, which was
connected with a cholera epidemic.
The Crisis of the 1840s in Detail
The first half of the 1840s was not favourable for agriculture. The most damaging effects
were wrought by torrential summer rains and floods. Table 1. shows information about floods
of the Wisłoka river, a tributary of the Vistula, from three different sources.
Year
Przecław parish
chronicle
Szewczuk’s
Chronicle
Comments
Yes
Rzochów parish
chronicle
Flood
Yes
1839
Yes
Church in Rzochów and bridge in
Pilzno destroyed
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Extensive damage in Rzochów
Table 1. Floods of the Wisłoka river
The year of 1843 was fertile and produce was very cheap. The two successive years (1844 and
1845) were described as wet and in both of them big floods occurred. In turn, the year of 1846
was too dry and in addition afflicted by potato blight. The first information about scarcity and
famine dates from 1845 and concerns western Galicia. The situation did not change in 1846,
and in 1847 took on catastrophic character in western and central Galicia. Both press reports
and parish chronicles are full of terrible descriptions of poverty and even cases of
cannibalism.
Statistical data on harvests released in official publications do not show any crop failures.
They are stable throughout the 1840s, so do not reflect the reality. We have no alternative
global assessments, so the only sources that can be used are local data. The manorial accounts
of Łańcut estate, for instance, have a gap from 1841 to 1848 with reference to potatoes.
Nevertheless the quantities of both sowing and harvested potatoes are more or less 2.5 times
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higher in the second half of the 1830s than in the 1850s. Yields of potatoes in the 1850s were
nearly half those before the blight.
I have looked for other sources which reflect real fluctuations in harvests rather than
guesstimates. I have investigated a few tithe registers of parishes located in low-lying areas
close to the rivers Dunajec and Wisłoka. Within the parish of Otfinów there were no drops in
harvests in 1845 or 1846 with the exception of potatoes. In Książnice parish only in one
village was the grain output in 1845 significantly down, at 57% of the previous year’s figure,
and in 1846 its records show a volume only 63% of the 1844 harvest. What is somewhat
curious is that these registers do not mention potatoes at all. This is probably because potatoes
were cultivated on formerly fallow fields.
The data on prices are more readily available. The price movements of vital crops after the
‘normal’ year of 1842 for the whole of Galicia (Ga), its two main cities Lviv (Lw) and
Kraków (Kr, incorporated into Galicia in 1846)2, and a small market town – Rozwadów (Ro),
are shown in table 2.
Wheat
Rye
Potatoes
Ga
Lw
Kr
Ro
Ga
Lw
Kr
Ro
Ga
Lw
Kr
Ro
1843
61
59
63
54
55
48
63
58
74
63
76
60
1844
68
78
74
68
61
76
75
50
79
78
93
83
1845
111
126
121
100
126
152
148
125
163
174
178
-
1846
156
155
138
146
179
187
184
195
200
203
232
255
1847
173
174
168
161
200
206
219
253
305
284
382
281
1848
144
155
102
-
155
161
123
-
289
248
304
-
Table 2. Index of prices of selected crops (1842=100)
The overall trend was common to both cities (Lviv, Kraków) and the small market town
(Rozwadów) and may thus be considered representative for the whole province. After two
cheaper years (1843, 1844), in 1845 a marked rise in prices of potatoes began, and in the
larger cities the price of rye also rose. Then came two expensive years, when the price of rye
at least doubled (or increased even more) and prices of potatoes climbed three or even four
times (Kraków). The main export grain – wheat – appreciated least.
2
Krakow before 1846, as a Free City, was closely connected with the Galician grain market as a transit hub for
grain imported to Galicia from the Kingdom of Poland.
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The mortality rate in 1847 rapidly rose to 78‰ (from 33‰ in 1846), which was the highest
level since 1816. Nevertheless, mortality was not constant across the province. Numbers of
deaths exceeded births in 11 out of 18 districts in the west and in the centre. To simplify, I
assume that the crisis affected the western part of Galicia, consisting of eight districts, i.e.
Wadowice, Bochnia, Nowy Sącz, Jasło, Tarnów, Sanok, Przemyśl 3. Table 3. and graph 1.
illustrate that the sudden rise in mortality affected only the western part of Galicia.
Western Galicia Eastern Galicia Galicia
1846
32
35
33
1847
113
44
78
Table 3. Mortality rate in western and eastern Galicia in ‰
Graph 1. Deaths in Galicia in 1838-1857
Graph 1. shows crude numbers of deaths in the 20-year perspective of 1838–1857. Between
1838 and 1846 mortality in both parts of Galicia developed at the same rate. Thereafter, we
observe a rapid increase in deaths in the west, and a far slower and smaller increment in the
east. After 1848 the data for the respective districts was not published so we cannot separate
these two geographical regions. The graph shows another peak in mortality in 1855, as well as
high numbers of deaths in 1849, 1853 and 1854.
3
In the traditional sense, the term “western Galicia” covered the six districts Wadowice, Bochnia, Nowy Sącz,
Jasło, Tarnów and Rzeszów, which were inhabited by Roman Catholic Poles. For the purposes of this paper I
have added two central districts, Przemyśl and Sanok, which were ethnically and religiously mixed (Polish and
Ukrainian).
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Graph 2. Birthss in Galicia in 1838-1857
Graph 2. presents numbers of births, and we can see that from 1846 in western Galicia there
was a progressive but significant drop in this figure. For Galicia as a whole, in 1855 (another
peak in the mortality rate), no decline in births is visible. This means that the population
shrinkage in 1847 and 1848 (table 4.) was much larger than that around 1855. In the 1840s at
least, this was caused by the situation in western Galicia.
WG
EG
Births
Deaths
Difference
Births
Deaths
Difference
1845 96,171
1846 81,705
72,822
23,349
110,944
87,959
22,985
72,918
8,787
102,339
85,107
17,232
1847 76,636 261,996 -185,360 103,351 106,404
-3,053
1848 53,565 147,831
-94,266
93,592 140,022
-46,430
Table 4. Natural movement in western and eastern Galicia in the 1840s.
In consequence, Galicia as a whole had in 1847 a negative growth rate of 3,8%, but in the
west of the province it reached -8%. The respective figures for the next year were -3% and 4.4%.
If we look at the various individual districts of western Galicia we can also see considerable
diversity (table 5.). In the 1847 the highest mortality rates were in the districts of Wadowice,
Bochnia and Nowy Sącz, i.e. the westernmost regions. A year later the highest mortality was
in Wadowice again, and in Sanok. Generally the most affected regions were western and
mountainous ones.
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Wadowice Bochnia Nowy Sącz Jasło Tarnów Rzeszów Sanok Przemyśl
1847
166
1848
97
136
145
114
106
68
105
65
74
71
65
47
83
Table 5. Mortality rate in western districts of Galicia (per mille)
56
49
We can observe the scale of devastation caused by the high mortality rates in even more detail
using the church annual directories (schematismus) of the Tarnow diocese, which give the
number of Catholics in each parish. The largest decline in the number of parishioners between
1845 and 1850 was in the deanery of Żywiec, the most mountainous in the Wadowice district.
Investigation of a few localities situated in the four western districts proves that the crisis
lasted a decade, with at least one or two peaks, in 1847 and 1855. But the pattern was not the
same everywhere, as the graphs below illustrate clearly (graph 3.).
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Graph 3. Births and deaths in selected parishes of western Galicia in 1838-1857
In the Wadowice and Nowy Sącz districts, the 1847 crisis appeared much worse than in
others. In the village of Sucha mortality was almost seven times higher than in “normal” years
(the average for 1842–1846). There was a similar pattern in two localities on the slopes of the
Gorce mountains, the town of Nowy Targ and the village of Ochotnica, where mortality was
respectively nearly six and five times higher than normal. In these places, and also two others
(Żmiąca, Borzęcin), the first half of the 1850s was not so dramatic. In the others, the crisis
peaked twice, and in some of them the year 1855 was worse than 1847. Most of the examined
parish registers indicate that mortality growth was rapid everywhere, with the exception of
Krasne and Lipnica villages, where the negative natural increase first became visible in 1846,
due above all to the very small number of births.
Parish registers include information on causes of death. Even during the greatest intensity of
mortality there were very few cases directly related to famine, i.e. starvation. However, in
1847 famine-related causes such as dysentery and dropsy were often noted (Ochotnica,
Padew).4
4
A few entries in April and May 1847 in Ochotnica have starvation as the cause of death.
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Causes of the Crisis
Grain and Potato Production
We have insufficient data on harvests in Galicia in the late 18th and first half of the 19th
centuries. The earliest are those generated by the general cadastral survey known as the
Josephine Cadastre, from 1785/1787, which is recognized as credible. This is an estimation of
total average annual field harvests expressed in terms of the four main cereals: wheat, rye,
barley and oats. Other field crops were treated as one of the abovementioned, depending on
their price (e.g. buckwheat was entered as barley). Given the different courses of the crisis, we
should make a distinction between the western and eastern parts of Galicia. The explanation
for the difference might be the dissimilar character of socio-economic development in the two
regions.
Western Galicia
n
%
Eastern Galicia
n
%
Area of fields in hectares
1,332,573 44.6 1,654,250 55.4
Population (1800)
1,589,554 48.4 1,697,011 51.6
Total
crop
production
(from
fields)
in
tonnes
a
(1785/1787)
Net production for human consumption in tonnesb
Potential consumption per standardised consumerc
(1800) in kg
Average price of a Metze (61.5 l) of rye (Kreuzer)
a
456,179
36.3
801,157
63.7
219,926
33.7
432,010
66.3
173
318
67
44
b
based on Josephine Cadastre; ¾ of wheat, rye and barley production (does not include seed for sowing);
standardised consumers = 80% of population
c
Table 6. Differences between western and eastern Galicia at the end of the 18th century
Table 6. shows the considerable inequalities between the two parts. Though both had almost
the same population, plant production in western Galicia was much lower. Western districts
had less arable land, much smaller harvests, and even less production for human consumption
(just 1/3 of the total), owing to the high proportion of oats in the crop structure. In
consequence, an adult (standardised consumer) had only about 173 kg of wheat, rye and
barley available for annual consumption. This calculation does not take into account wheat for
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export or rye for vodka production. So we see that local production was insufficient for
subsistence. It is quite obvious that the shortfall must have been delivered from eastern
districts; imports from the Kingdom of Poland and sometimes from Hungary also played a
significant role. Nevertheless, the supply of grain was impeded by the slow development of
modern communication (paved roads).
We do not have reliable data on harvests in the subsequent years. In 1819/1820 an update to
the Josephine Cadastre was made. The individual village registers show that in some cases the
soil was classified as worse than on the previous occasion, while newly obtained fields tended
to be of poor fertility. In consequence, the Austrian statistics for the 1830s reveal only slightly
higher grain harvests but these are still only mean, potential, static estimations of yearly
production. They do also, however, include a separate record of harvests of so-called
incidental crops, such as buckwheat, maize and peas, previously included among the four
main grains. Table 7. shows information about grain production in the 1840s based on official
statistics for the basic cereals (wheat, rye, barley and oats). Intake per standardised normal
consumer (adult) was very low, even if we calculate higher yields assuming some progress in
cultivation. It is worth stressing that calculations for harvests in the 1860s, including
buckwheat and millet, show lower volumes than 20 years previously.5 In any case, traditional
grain production was already insufficient at the beginning of the 19th century. The solution
was potatoes, which emerged as a garden crop in the 1770s, were soon introduced to fields,
and replaced rye in vodka production in manorial distilleries. It has been estimated that in the
1840s two-fifths of the approximately 11.8m tonnes of total potato production was used to
make alcohol. Contemporary texts, and inventories of both noble estates and the chattels of
townsmen and peasants alike confirm the immense importance of potatoes. For manorial
estates they were material for vodka production, which was the main branch of the food
industry after the collapse of the grain-based economy during the Napoleonic Wars.6 For the
rest of the population (in both towns and villages), potatoes became a very important
subsistence food. Although official statistical data are rather poor in terms of reliability, there
is no doubt that Galicia was the one of the biggest producers within the Austrian Monarchy.7
In terms of local sources, we have few tithe registers covering the first half of the 19th century,
5
The total grain production of Galicia was estimated at 36.7m Austrian Metzen in the 1840s, and in the 1860s at
26.2m Metzen.
6
In 1845 there were a total of 1,517 active distilleries in Galicia and Bukovina, i.e. one per 57 km².
7
Miodunka,
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so our conclusions cannot be made with any degree of certainty.8 Some of them contain tithes
of potatoes, some do not. This invites the conclusion that in some places potato farming
occupied fallow fields without superseding traditional grain crops. According to statistics for
the 1860s, fallow land accounted for only 13.4% of all fields (for example in Lower Austria
25.7%, in Bohemia 17.4%). The same publication indicated that potatoes occupied 6.7% of
total arable fields (including fallows).9 Unlike grain, the potato yield was similar in both parts
of the province.
Western Galicia
n
Eastern Galicia
%
n
%
Area of fields in hectares
1,338,231 44.2 1,747,899 55.8
Population (1846)
2,306,182 48.7 2,428,245 51.3
Population density (per km)
62.6
54.7
Total crop production (from fields) in tonnes
510,112
38.8
805,023
61.2
Net production for human consumption in tonnesa
244,797
36.6
424,605
63.4
Potential grain consumption per standardised consumer
132
(1846) in kg
Potato production in tonnes (1860s)
517,800
219
44.8
Potato consumption per standardised normal consumer
639,131
165
(1843) in kg
Average price of a Metze (61.5 l) of rye (Kreuzer)
123
113
Average price of a Metze (61.5 l) of potatoes (Kreuzer)
29
25
a
55.2
¾ of wheat, rye and barley production (does not include seed for sowing)
Table 7. Differences within Galicia in the 1840s.
In the 1840s total domestic production of grain and potatoes in western Galicia was far from
sufficient. Import from eastern districts and foreign countries was necessary even in non-crisis
years. Road construction improved transport, and this is reflected in the price discrepancies,
which are smaller than 50 years previously.
8
9
During the 19th century many tithes paid in grain were converted into money. Tithing was abolished in 1848.
Vergleichende statistik… Wien 1868, pp. 49, 51.
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Despite the shortfall of food, some proportion of the grain output of the manorial farms, above
all wheat, were floated down the river Vistula to Gdańsk. The size of the Galician grain trade
in a typical year is illustrated in table 8. and graph 4.
Import
Export
Wheat Rye Barley Oats Total Wheat Rye Barley Oats Total
tonnes
From/to
Poland, Prussia,
Russia
628
86
Hungary
Total
714
2,350 1,189 382 4,549 1,334
34
120
322 1,810
183
107
101
2,938 1,553 646 5,851 1,717 217
227
423 2,584
588
364
264 1,302
383
774
Table 8. Galician export and import of grain in 1840
Graph 4. Galician export and import of grain in 1840 (total)
Demographic pressure
The population density across Galicia was 61.5 inhabitants per square km in 1846, but there
were large differences between the western and eastern parts of the province. The average for
western districts was 75 people per square km, with the highest densities in the Bochnia and
Wadowice districts, of 103.5 and 96.4 respectively. As such we can regard these regions, and
also the submontane district of Jasło (89 people per sq km), as overpopulated.
There are also other indicators of the overpopulation of the western part of Galicia. Young
people had difficulties marrying and establishing families. The average marriage rate for
1842–1844 was 9.2‰ (in the east 10.2 ‰) and in the years 1845-1847 dropped to 7.6 ‰. At
the same time the percentage of children born illegitimate rose – from about 8% c. 1840 to
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over 9% in the years 1843–1845. Thereafter, a gradual decrease in this statistic began in 1846
and by 1848 only 5.8% of children were born outside legal marriages. The reason for this was
the sudden increase in marriages in 1848 as a result of the rise in widowed people. This
phenomenon is also reflected on the local level. In the Siedliska-Bogusz parish (Tarnów
district) the rate of illegitimate births was about 11.5% in the decade of 1838–1847, falling to
6% in the next five-year period. The decrease in illegitimate births in Ochotnica was even
sharper – from above 17% in 1842–1847 to 6.8% in 1848–1850.10
Structure of Peasant Farms
The abovementioned fluctuations in the illegitimate birth rate were closely connected with the
possibility of owning a farm and establishing a family. In the traditional, agriculture-oriented
economy, this was the main way of attaining stability in life.11 One very important factor was
the manorial economy, with its complex system of duties, i.e. unpaid work on the manorial
farm. From the regime of Emperor Joseph II, the nobility could no longer appropriate the
peasant’s land, but the legal separation of the peasant’s farm was very difficult. In spite of the
strict regulation, however, fragmentation of farmland progressed. From the 1780s to the 1820s
(when the Josephine Cadastre was revised) the increase in the number of farms was slow, but
gradually became more noticeable, and led to a progressive reduction in farm size. This
process is shown in table 9.
>50
20-50
10-20
5-10
2-5
0-2
Total
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
N
%
1820
4,741
3
19,782
12
30,034
19
36,885
23
35,563
22
33,597
21
160,602
1850
2,162
1
19,826
7
50,174
18
64,747
23
56,471
20
82,475
30
275,855
100
100
Change
(1820=
46
100
167
176
159
245
172
100 %
Table 9. Size Structure of Peasant Farms in Western Galicia (Austrian Joche, 1 Joch=0.57
ha)
To date, however, research has not drawn a distinction between noble and state estates. For
the purposes of this paper, a sample survey was made on the basis of materials concerning the
10
The preliminary results for the Padew parish, which was much less affected by the famine in 1847, suggest
that the rate of illegitimate births before and after 1847 was fairly stable, at 8-11%.
11
In Galicia rural linen weaving was quite developed at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, but there are still
few studies on the importance of this domestic craft in the peasant economy.
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land reform of 1848 which shows a structural difference. In former state villages there was a
huge predominance of small crofters’ farms between five and ten Joche (Polish: mórg), i.e. c.
2.9–5.8 ha, in size. This was probably due to the long tradition of free turnover of land among
peasants living on former estates of the Polish kings, taken over by the Austrian state.
Conversely, private owners controlled the structure of peasants’ farms strictly – which was
appropriate from their own point of view. Therefore, on properties of this kind, big peasant
farms – which supplied labour with their own yoke – survived up to the mid-19th century (see
graph 5.). Nevertheless an additional consequence was a greater number of landless people,
i.e. those possessing only cottages or living in houses owned by others.
a.
Former state village: Grochowe, Padew
Narodowa, Tuszów (Tarnów district)
b. Noble village of Książnice parish, SiedliskaBogusz village (Tarnów district)
Graph 5. Size of peasants farm in selected estates c. 1850 in absolute numbers
The Subsistence Crisis and the Peasants’ Revolt of 1846
The cereal and potato failure in the mid-1840s tend to be presented by scholars as merely a
background to the Peasants’ Revolt of February 1846 (so-called rabacja in Polish).12 It is
claimed that the main cause was incitement by Austrian local officers, who exploited the
peasants’ anxiety over the return of absolute rule of the nobility and full serfdom. The great
famine of 1847, by contrast, is regarded as an important reason for the pacification of the
revolt.
Looking at the map of the extent of the revolt (graph 6.) it is clear that it went no further than
western Galicia. The epicentre was the district of Tarnów, particularly its borderland with the
district of Jasło. The wave of attacks on manor houses and manor farms swept across five
districts but almost omitted the district of Wadowice and the southern, most mountainous
12
The revolt began on 19th February 1846 in response to the nobles’ attempt to raise an anti-Austrian uprising.
In April soldiers put down the revolt in the villages affected. One of the peasant leaders, the best known, was
Jakub Szela from Smarzowa village.
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region of the Nowy Sącz district. Neither townsmen nor German colonists took part in it. We
also have information that peasants from state (or former state) properties not only did not
join the revolt, but also prevented incursion into their villages. One possible explanation for
this is the abovementioned structure of farmland possession. The great numbers of poor,
landless people could have been a leading force. The economic structure of rural society on
former state properties was flatter, and probably also more independent from their owners’
protection and relief. Existing publications stress, however, that it was a revolt of all classes
of rural society.
Graph 6. Manor houses and manor farms robbed by peasants in 1846
The impact of the revolt on food provision and the severity of the subsistence crisis is another
issue that should be taken into consideration. Leaving aside the publicized cases of murders,
the main goal of peasants was robbery and destruction of the duties registers. The stolen grain
might have aided survival during the severe period ahead of the 1846 harvest, but many
manor fields lay fallow that year. This may have exacerbated the lack of food and intensified
the famine the next year, 1847. The revolt also destroyed the existing model of poverty relief,
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which was above all the duty of the lord of the manor. But there is no simple explanation or
correlation, because in fact the famine was the most severe in Wadowice district, which was
spared by the peasants’ revolt.13 Another region that missed out was the area around Rzeszów,
where the famine of 1847 had less drastic effects.
Conclusion
The main problem I faced in my research into this issue was the lack of sufficient statistical
data relating to demography, harvests and prices. Nevertheless, I tried to answer the question
about the vulnerability of the rural population to these subsistence crises owing to its socioeconomic structure.
There is no doubt that the famine of 1847 was a crisis of the old, i.e. Malthusian type. The
crucial cause, in my opinion, was the potato blight; mortality rose suddenly in 1847, i.e. a year
after this disease appeared in Galicia. Nevertheless, increasing difficulties had already led to a
prior gradual decline in fecundity.
Among the longer-term reasons, the poor productivity of west Galician agriculture and the
ensuing shrinkage in peasant farm should be taken into consideration.
The link between the famine and the peasants’ revolt the previous year is still not clear. The
fact is that the sharpest population decline took place in the district of Wadowice, which was
almost untouched by the riots.
13
The Wadowice district had also a well-developed road system.
15