Manorial farms in the commune of Uniejów

Abstract

Manorial farms were shaping for several centuries the economic and social relations as well as the architectural space. They were at first created in church estates, to become gradually the property of other social groups. They often were places of exploitation of the peasants, but also places of dissemination of innovations and improvement of agricultural practices. As the development of trade and transport routes was progressing, they played an important part in the development of handicraft. The end of XVIII century and beginning of XIX century were a period of intensive socio-economic changes and the growth of industry, which brought changes in the functioning of manorial farms (mechanization, introduction of new crops and fertilizers. This resulted in increased numbers of the poorest rural workers with no farmland, who subsequently became the source of cheap labour for the growing industrial centres (e.g. Łódź, Zgierz). The end of XIX century witnessed a slow decline of this type of farms. World War I brought more radical changes in forms of ownership and farming, defined in laws of 1920-1925. The next stage of transformations came after World War II, introduced by laws of 1944-1949.