DEMOGRAPHIC PICTURE OF HUNGARY IN THE 18th CENTURY BASED ON THE 1715 AND 1720 TAX CONSCRIPTIONS

The study examines the territorial differentiation of Hungary right after the expulsion of the Ottomans based on the first complete (but by no means the most re liable) census for taxation purposes (1720). Analysing the data of the GISta Hungarorum database aggregated for 8–10 thousand settlements, the research seeks to find answers to the question which areas had the most favourable conditions in the Kingdom of Hungary and Transylvania using the plot size per peasant (extensification) and meadow per serf (animal husbandry), the proportion of landless (declassification, land fragmentation), the proportion of burghers (non-agricultural earners), the intensity of agriculture and soil fertility. We examine which areas are characterised by population density exceeding the relative capacity of the area, and whether the socio-economic-demographic situation of the lowlands devastated by the Turks was really as desperate as was thought, and the economic potential of the new types of settlement in the resettled areas is also examined. In addition to maps showing the pattern of inequalities, the nature of the inequalities is also examined using PCA to assess the weight of the main components of economic potential.