Poolm isatest ja nende omanikest Eesti- ja Liivimaal / About semi-manors and their owners in Estland and Livland

Although the study of manors has a long tradition in Estonian historical science, there are still some gaps. One such area is the theme of semi-manors or landstellen, which can be considered one of the least-studied subject fields.The term landstelle itself is very complicated. Its Estonian counterpart semi-manor was probably introduced only in the 1960s. It is very difficult to define the concept because landstelle could mean a number of things in German—for example, a farm, a piece of land, etc. Historians have tried to define the term. According to one definition, it was an agnonomically independent manor that was small and had none of the priviledges pertaining to knight manors. They were separate from knight manors. Another vital aspect was that they did not meet the requirements imposed on knight manors: in Baltic provinces it was required from knight manor to have a certain amount of arable land. In conclusion, a semi-manor was a middle-sized landholding that could be placed somewhere between a knight manor and a farm.It is impossible to say the complete number of semi-manors in both provinces. From Estland at least 120 are known, situated mainly in Virumaa County. In Livonia the number was much smaller: only 25 of them are attested. Semi-manors usually came into existence through separation from an enfranchised knight manor. A number of them were former knight manors that lost their status as such. In Estland the average semi-manor was over 500 dessiatine in size; in Livonia their area amounted to over 200 dessiatine. As a rule they consisted of manor land or farm land or both. Some included quota land (one-sixth of the land formerly available to peasants). A semi-manor was an underpriviledged possession, but its owner could use anything produced from the land water belonging to the manor. The owner could also found and maintain factories or other economic installations, he could disposess his manor, he had the right to rent out land, etc. Mortgaging semi-manors was not widespread. Some semi-manors were included in entailments.Semi-manors could be divided into several subdivisions. The majority of them belonged to private owners. Some were owned by different institutions such as a nobility corporation, towns, or firms. Beginning in the twentieth century, a number of semi-manors were acquired by Russian banks. A least 30 semi-manors in Estland were former knight manors. Some were actually factories or summer resorts. Even some islands were deemed as semi-manors. Others were actually a conglomeration of farms.Although it could be easily concluded