The compossessorates in olt county

AuthorGheorghe Rosculet
PositionDepartment of Sociology-Philosophy, <I>Transilvania</I> University of Bra&#x015f;ov.
Pages57-62

Page 57

1. In order to cut the jointly possessed (common) stock of wood, the co-owners grouped into social unions called compossessorates. They are "social realities of a special character; they are neither identified nor lost in the village or the commune. A compossessorate can result in grouping only a part or all the inhabitants of a village and it can also accept inhabitants of the neighbouring villages" (2, p. 3). This type of social unions inculcates economic force to the various rural communities and due to their economic value it ensures stability and social solidarity. From a juridical point of view, the compossessorates are private law institutions structured on some local practices, customary laws which by the community's will turned into legitimate rules into a genuine consuetudinary (unwritten, sanctioned by usage, custom, a customary, common) juridical system of the area (Olt county).

The activity of each compossessorate used to develop on the basis of a statute or private regulation which mainly stipulated for the joint ways of usage and the wise exploitation of the joint woods and pastures, for the sum of the adequate income of the joint owners (in currency or timber) directly proportional to the surface owned in the undividable estate or by leasing the pastures and the hunting right; the leading board of the compossessorate was elected on the basis of the above principles, which were also the criteria of setting the rapports between the compossessorate and the bodies of the local and county administration.

2. Types of Compossessorates in Olt County

Olt County, this region full of "mixed (joint) and round estates", distinguished by its old Romanian historical background, preserved at the date of the monographic researches carried out by Vasile V. Caramelea under the aegis of the Romanian Social Institute in the above area (1939) the following types of compossessorates:

  1. boyar like compossessorates (the former boyars' compossessorates);Page 58

  2. frontier guard and confessional (joint, also frontier guard) compossessorates;

  3. the former serfs' compossessorates;

  4. mixed compossessorates (of former serfs, former frontier guards and former boyars) (2, pp. 5-6).

The above types of compossessorates are differentiated by the origin of their estate and also by the way it was agreed to be used. Of all the above types of compossessorates, in Olt County the compossessorates of the former boyars and those of the former serfs proved to be predominant. The following sections of this paper will focus on the above mentioned types of compossessorates.

2.1. The Former Serfs' Compossessorates

The emancipation and apportionment of estate patents of the enslaved issued in 1853 and 1854, regulated in Transylvania the conditions of ownership of the woods and pastures jointly owned until 1848. The descendants of the former serfs, who acquired "their estates" by means of segregation after abolishing serfdom, set up compossessorates to exploit the stock of wood jointly by continuing to make use of the customary practices performed by their descendants: the smoke, the outhouse, the family, the dwelling place, the homestead, the house number, the involvement into the shared chores, religion etc. These customary practices were compulsory for all the joint landowners as a proof of the firm will expressed by these communities; any deviation from the customary practices was sanctioned by the elimination of the individual from the compossessorate. The rules set up as the shared core of the practices were very important to sep up the condominium:

  1. any apportionment of property involves being a former serf or a descendant of his;

  2. nobody can own two estates;

  3. the ownerships cannot be alienated either totally or partially, they are transmitted from ascendants to descendants, the owners of a certain period are only entitled with the usufruct;

  4. the ownerships of the owners without any descendants become the community's ownership;

  5. the new comers of the commune cannot acquire any compossessorate usufruct;

  6. the income and expenses are equally distributed to all the holders and the regular payment of taxes proves the continuity of using the usufruct (2, p. 9). Partial ownership of this type of compossessorate is attributed not by means of inheritance but according to the quality of being a descendant of a former serf integrated into an independent social union (compossessorate); in other words, the joint owners are grouped according to a social non genealogical relationship. The non genealogical consuetudinary social system, specific to the former serfs' compossessorates in Olt County is intended to preserve and transmit the community estate to every generation of descendants.

2.2. The Former Boyars' Compossessorates

The origin of the undivided estate of a great part of these compossessorates can be found in the period in which the rulers of Wallachia used to rule Făgăraş and free people (the boyars) used to own the woods and pastures jointly. The rulers of Wallachia ratified by letters patent old possessions or they decided to offer a mountain or an edge of a village to certain boyars who used to be the leaders of some troops of villagers. Subsequently, the later compossessorates were founded on the basis of these collective properties.

"In order to build up the condominium, to regulate the inter individual Page 59relationships and those set up...

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