Scutelnic (also scutnic, from
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
**Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
verb ''scuti'', "to exempt", "to absolve"; plural: ''scitelnici'', ''scutnici'') were
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasan ...
servants in
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...
and
Moldova
Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...
who were exempt from state
tax
A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...
es. They were charged with various duties and were attached to ''
boier
A boyar or bolyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility in many Eastern European states, including Bulgaria, Kievan Rus' (and later Russia), Moldavia and Wallachia (and later Romania), Lithuania and among Baltic Germans. Co ...
s'' (land owners with military or administrative functions) and to monasteries.
The category of ''scutelnici'' was introduced by the reforms of
Constantine Mavrocordatos
Constantine Mavrocordatos (Greek language, Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Μαυροκορδάτος, Romanian language, Romanian: ''Constantin Mavrocordat''; February 27, 1711November 23, 1769) was a Greeks, Greek noble who served as List of rul ...
. It was abolished in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...
after the region was
annexed by the Russian Empire on April 29, 1818 by the ''Statute on the Establishment of the
Bessarabian Oblast
The Bessarabia Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its administrative centre in Kishinev (Chișinău). It consisted of an area of and a population of 1,935,412 inhabitants. The Bessarabia Governorate bordered ...
''.
[''Charter for the organization of the Bessarabian Oblast'', April 29, 1818, in "Печатается по изданию: Полное собрание законов Российской империи. Собрание первое.", Vol 35. ''1818'', ]Sankt Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,9 ...
, 1830, pg. 222-227. Available online a
hrono.info
The term is preserved in various names, such as the
family name
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...
s
Skutnik,
Skutelnik (alternative transliterations of the word from
Cyrillic
The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
) and the settlement
Scutelnici.
References
{{reflist
History of Wallachia
History of Moldavia
Obsolete occupations
Economic history of Romania
Peasants