Questions regarding the abolition of the Military Frontier in 1873

[Michelle Batalo Mills]

I am reading a paper  (Georgevich, Dragoslav; Maric, Nikolaj; and Moravcevich, Nicholas, "Serbian Americans and Their
Communities of Cleveland Volume 1" (2020). Cleveland Memory. 63.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks/63)

In this paper, they state "Their situation after the abolition of the Military Frontier in 1873 became so unfavorable that they decided to immigrate to the United States."
They elaborate further on several reasons why their situation was unfavorable but I have some questions specifically regarding taxes.

Prior to 1873 - they did not have to pay ANY taxes in exchange for the military service that was required?
After 1873, who did the taxes go to?  Was it to the AH government or the wealthy land owners?
How did a farmer even make money to pay the taxes?  Since they no longer had wages from their military service, where did they get money from?

Thank you.

[drajver]

I am reading a paper  (Georgevich, Dragoslav; Maric, Nikolaj; and Moravcevich, Nicholas, "Serbian Americans and Their
Communities of Cleveland Volume 1" (2020). Cleveland Memory. 63.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clevmembks/63)

In this paper, they state "Their situation after the abolition of the Military Frontier in 1873 became so unfavorable that they decided to immigrate to the United States."
They elaborate further on several reasons why their situation was unfavorable but I have some questions specifically regarding taxes.

Prior to 1873 - they did not have to pay ANY taxes in exchange for the military service that was required?
After 1873, who did the taxes go to?  Was it to the AH government or the wealthy land owners?
How did a farmer even make money to pay the taxes?  Since they no longer had wages from their military service, where did they get money from?

Thank you.

Prior to 1873 - they did not have to pay ANY taxes in exchange for the military service that was required?

I suppose that some taxes existed prior to 1873, but the essence of deal was: land property in exchange for free military service.

After 1873, who did the taxes go to?  Was it to the AH government or the wealthy land owners?

There were no wealthy landowners in Military Frontier, so I suppose taxes go to AH government or civil administration of Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia.

How did a farmer even make money to pay the taxes?  Since they no longer had wages from their military service, where did they get money from?

Only a small number of Krajisniks had wages from their military service prior to 1873, vast majority of them fed themselves and their families from the land they owned. So cash has always been an issue, even before 1873.

Anyway, it is complex question. If you are interested in details, I suggest you to read two KARL KASER books Slobodni seljak i vojnik (Freier Bauer und Soldat) though I am not sure it is translated in English.

[Michelle Batalo Mills]

Thank you so much for answering.
 I searched for the Kaser books in English but I did not see them.  I ordered Srdja Trifkovic - The Krajina Chronicle - I am hoping it is a good book. 

[Malesevic]

Thank you so much for answering.
 I searched for the Kaser books in English but I did not see them.  I ordered Srdja Trifkovic - The Krajina Chronicle - I am hoping it is a good book.

It is a good book about Serbs in Croatia but you will not find there the answers for your questions, because it is a book about generally history of Serbs in Croatia. Trifkovic wrote very less about Military Frontier and most part of book is about XX. century.

I will write you some explenation in a few days.

Regards from Austria 

[Malesevic]

Prior to 1873 - they did not have to pay ANY taxes in exchange for the military service that was required?
After 1873, who did the taxes go to?  Was it to the AH government or the wealthy land owners?
How did a farmer even make money to pay the taxes?  Since they no longer had wages from their military service, where did they get money from?

As a rule, all conscripts between the ages of 16 and 60 served as Grenzer in the army. During the peace they made their living from agriculture and trade. It turned out, however, that the military border has many problems to get the basics for the population. There was always famine. Either because of the war or simply because the populated areas were unfortunately only partially unified for agriculture.

Because of the repeated famine, there were several attempts to carry out fundamental reforms in the area of the military border. Above all, this meant subordinating the administration of the military border to civil administration. Croatian and Hungarian nobles, as well as the Catholic Church, campaigned for this right from the start. All these reforms failed, but the border guards' privileges were successively reduced. This means that even before 1873 some privileges were only available on paper, while in reality other rules applied. In this sense, the Grenzer had to adjust and tried more and more in trade or settled in other areas where it was easier to do agriculture.

After the military border was officially abolished, this led to a wave of emigration within the monarchy and even more often to North America. In 1873 the generalates of Warasdin and Karlstadt were finally incorporated into the civil administration of the monarchy and that meant the population had given their taxes to the civil administration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and not to the nobles.

It should be emphasized that not all Orthodox were automatically conscripted and tax-free. There were also classic peasant families who worked in agriculture and were subject to taxation even before 1873. They paid their tax (tenth) to the aristocracy and the Catholic Church. The clear majority, however, was tax-free.

I hope my answers could help you a bit.

Best Regards

[Michelle Batalo Mills]

Thank you.