Term:Folwark

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     Folwark
from German Vorwerk – „advanced work”


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An agricultural household under direct management of the landlord tilled by serfs through the system of compulsory labor (corvée). Folwark appeared in Poland in the 14th century, and in the 16th century it became a dominant form of agricultural enterprise intended for large scale grain production for export. The rapid growth of the folwark economy in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th-18th centuries was caused by advance of agricultural techniques (especially an introduction of the three-fields system) on the one hand, and the growing demand for grain in Western Europe, on the other hand.