ŢINUTUL NEAMŢULUI ÎN EPOCA FANARIOTĂ
THE NEAMȚ COUNTY IN THE PHANARIOT AGE

Summary/Abstract: This study is focused on the former county of Neamț during the period of the Phanariot regime (1711-1821), a period considered to be one of the most instable periods from the political point of view in the entire history of the Romanian people, with wars of the neighbour empires that took place on the Romanian territory, with refuges, emigrations and excessive fiscality. Having started since the reigns of Radu Mihnea and Alexandru Iliaş, the penetration of the Greek within the administration ranks knows its apogee, the Phanariot rulers also donating many rich Moldavian monasteries to monastic establishments in Greece, Antioquia, Palestine or Egypt, like the Buhalniţa Monastery, on the middle flow of Neamț Bistrița, which determined the intrusion of laic authorities in the monastery problems and a merciless exploitation of the inhabitants of their lands. Over the mountains, in Transylvania, the national existence of the Romanian people was threatened by forced catholic and Hungarian transformations and many „ungureni”, as they were called, passed in Moldova, where the rulers received them in order to obtain new tax payers, in regions with little population. A lot of villages were thus founded, both in meadow areas and especially in the small depressions in Neamț Mountains. The emigrations over the mountains were supported by the local outlaws who guided the Transylvanian people towards Moldova. In Neamţ County, Vasile cel Mare (the Great) was famous, being mentioned by Vasile Alecsandri or Mihail Sadoveanu in their books, or Ştefan Bujor, an emblematic outlaw figures in the Romanian areal, representatives of the social vigilantes, of the fight against a mostly foreign regime, corrupt and exploiting. Neamț County is becoming more and more important in the Moldavian economy due to the wood richness of the Bistrița forest massif and to the easy transport on Bistrița River with the rafts, well-known being the masts which arrived to Istanbul. The new capitalist relationships begin to be present despite the Phanariot administration. This article was realised by studying the writings of the foreign travellers who went through this county, by consulting the documents collections, the archives, the monographs dedicated to the region and also the History works realised at the end of the 19th century, and that can be found in the Fund of Old Books „G.T. Kirileanu” of Neamț County Library.

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