Centralny Zarząd Dóbr Włodzimierza hr. Dzieduszyckiego

Abstract

In the second half of the 19th century, the ongoing process of modernization of the European economy also reached the agriculture in Poland. Mechanization, modern methods of cultivation and of breeding animals, financing production with credits, and especially, the necessity of using hired hands caused that asset management was becoming more and more complex, required specialist knowledge of agriculture and law that was gained at universities and through years of practice. Two methods of asset management became popular among great landowners: self-administration or lease. Self-administration required efficient administration. Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki possessed assets in all of the three invading countries, and their value in the second half of the 19th century was estimated for about 8 million Austro-Hungarian guldens. When reorganizing the management system, he created the Central Board of Assets of Count Włodzimierz Dzieduszycki. It was led by the general plenipotentiary to whom subject were the overseers of particular fiefdoms and the plenipotentiary of the so-called Państwo Konarzewskie in Greater Poland. All important decisions were made by the landowner, however, he frequently asked for the opinion of his advisers. The heart of the board was the central office that hired a few exceptional full-time lawyers from Lviv as well as a whole group of well-educated specialists from the fields of agriculture and forestry who learned there how to manage assets. They were organized in a relatively modern way, as for the conditions of the second half of the 19th century, however, their efficiency depended on flexible adaptation of the internal structure to the tasks given by the landowner.