Żydowskie osadnictwo wiejskie w świetle ankiety włościańskiej 1814 roku: postrzeganie Żydów a rzeczywistość społeczno-gospodarcza na początku XIX wieku

Jewish Rural Settlements in the Light of the Peasant Survey of 1814: The Perception of Jews and the Socio-Economic Reality at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century

In 1814 the government launched the Peasant Survey, aimed at collecting local elites’ opinions on the best ways of improving the living conditions of peasants. The 140 responses, almost all of them containing comments on Jews, are a rich source of knowledge about the rural Jews of that period. This paper analyzes the Jewish theme in the survey: the predominant critical perception of Jews and various accusations against them as well as proposed reforms. The comparison with the results of the 1819 census of rural Jews in the Kraków voivodeship, including their occupational structure, demonstrates the gap between the elites’ judgement and the reality.