Agrarian change in Bosnia under Habsburg rule :|1878 - 1914

Abstract

This study aims to examine the changing nature of the agrarian relations in Habsburg-occupied Bosnia. To this end, it analyses the administrative and legal practices of the Austro-Hungarian administration regarding landed property, land tenure and taxation of agricultural production. This study mainly focuses on the legislation which was drawn up by the Austrian lawmakers especially for Bosnia and is available on the official web site of the Austrian National Library. In addition to these digitised sources, this study makes use of the reports which were produced by the Common Ministry of Finance, in whose jurisdiction Bosnia laid, and which are now preserved in the Austrian State Archive in Vienna. The widely held view in the historiography is that the Austro-Hungarian administration adopted and implemented late-Ottoman land legislation and thus avoided any profound change in the existing agrarian structure. By contrast, this study argues that by reinterpreting and applying late-Ottoman land law in particular ways and by supplementing them with new laws the Habsburg administration indeed achieved a fundamental transformation in the agrarian relations. Furthermore, this study argues that the main aspect of the Habsburg administrative and legal practices regarding property and rights in land was the restitution of state ownership in ³land DQG VRLÓ in Bosnia.