Beyond the Royal Decree: on the History of Roads and the Population Distribution in the Smolensk Voivodeship in the 17th Cent.

Abstract

The article, written at the confluence of the history of law and historical geography, considers the issue of the formation and state of the road and settlement networks in the Smolensk voivodeship of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1609–1654). As starting point for observations served the two decrees of the King Sigismund III Vasa concerning the restoration of roads (1625). They were extracted from the Lithuanian Metrica and published in the present article with a Russian translation. These decrees are considered in a wide socio-cultural context of the epoch, with the involvement of extensive comparative historical materials from other regions and periods. Much attention in the article is paid to such issues as the mutual location of roads and settlements as well as the speed of movement in different periods, for which numerous statistics are analysed. This analysis, in turn, will help the further study of the historical geography of the region using the centrographic method. Sources and calculations indicate that the road network of the voivodeship was inherent in high inertia from the viewpoint of its configuration, density, state, and operation. The system of settlements was in complex interaction and mutual influence with the local road network. The state and development of both systems were due to both objective (landscape features) and subjective (technological limitation of the pre-industrial era, military-political situation in the frontier region, cultural and psychological factors) reasons. At the same time, the analysed sources, including the mentioned royal decrees of 1625, demonstrate the orientation of state policy and the growing role of the authorities in the field of infrastructure, urban and rural colonisation of the region. This reflected some qualitative shifts in the development of the state in early modern period, such as the modernisation of management methods, the stabilising of the royal residence, etc. The analysed documents of 1625 shed light on some other aspects of the era: the confrontation of the Commonwealth with its neighbours, the features of the administrative organisation and land ownership in the region, the system of taxes and duties, the ways of forming the local elite and the nature of relations in its environment, some features of language and culture