Habsburglar Kara Eflak’a Gelirse: Vidin’de Hayvancılık Sektörünün Dönüşümü (1695-1740)
When The Habsburgs Occupied Wallachian Oltenia: The Transformation of Animal Husbandry in Vidin (1695-1740)

Summary/Abstract: This study focuses on the repercussions of the fiscal and political changes at the beginning of the eighteenth century in Lesser Wallachia (i.e. Kara Eflak or Oltenia) upon the town of Vidin, with particular emphasis on the transformation of the animal husbandry in and around the region during the 1695-1740 period. In this vein, it contends that Habsburg policies in Oltenia considerably shaped peasant mobility as well as the contours of the livestock sector around Vidin. During the time span from 1695 to 1718 demographic mobility, sale of pasture lands and ownership problems pertaining to meadows were the key phenomena shaping the dynamics of the animal husbandry in Vidin. After the fall of Oltenia to Habsburg control (1718), the fundamental economic policies in Vidin and Danubian Basin revolved around the practice of tying peasants to the land through a series of tax exemptions, thereby making up for the labor deficit in the agriculture and livestock sectors. In a world already characterized by labor deficit, the Habsburg and Ottoman economic policies created, particularly in the town of Vidin, a strategy of tax games which could only be maintained by powerful magnates. The notables of Vidin succeeded in not only attracting peasants to work in the estates around the town, but also creating kışlaks (i.e. winter pastures) and çiftliks (i.e. large estates) for the exploitation of meadows across Ottoman Eastern Wallachia. Hence, by the time the Habsburg rule in Oltenia finally came to an end in 1739, the Ottoman center inherited tax-evasion tactics dominated by individuals with military titles and local notables in particular, and a livestock sector centering around farms termed as kışlaks in Wallachia and the Danubian region.

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