The Economic Communal of Bulgarians

Rumen Andreev
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Rumen Andreev: University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria

Ikonomiceski i Sotsialni Alternativi, 2024, issue 4, 52-62

Abstract: One of the interesting business institutes is the communal. It existed for thousands of years, and on the Balkan Peninsula it was preserved until the beginning of the 20th century. A communal is several families who live and cultivate common land. After the liberation of Bulgaria, new institutions appeared, the essence of which was different from the local cultures and social relationships and led to the dissolution of the communal. Bulgaria at the beginning of the 20th century was an agricultural country and the cultivation of the land was carried out by the rural communal, community/commune, and there was no established private property and economic individualism. For thousands of years, the communal has existed on the Bulgarian lands, which was created on an economic basis and preserves the traditions, language, and morals of the Bulgarian society. These communals are independent, and justice is at their core – the distribution of the produced products is done in the communal. Agriculture is dependent on natural conditions, so drought, floods, hail, locusts, etc. cause famine. The communals of the Bulgarians managed to overcome these disasters without a mass famine like there was in Europe in the 18th century. The purpose of the article is to examine the reasons for the long existence of the communal and its rapid disintegration after the creation of the nationstate. The existence of the communal shows that in the Balkans during the Middle Ages there was no such attachment of the peasant to the land as in feudal Europe, but there was a relative independence of the cultivators who were interested in the productivity of their own labor.

Keywords: agriculture; economic communal; feudalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N10 P48 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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