ABSTRACT
Migration and geographical mobility have become central themes of historical research in the last few decades. 1 Contrary to long-prevailing views stressing the immobility of pre-industrial societies, more recent work in social history has called attention to the extraordinarily high extent, as well as the rich diversity, of migrational movements in preindustrial Central Europe.2 Two main findings should be considered. First, there are certain types and patterns of migration which remained stable over the course of centuries. Second, in these migrational types we encounter a close association of spatial stability and mobility. Quite often people were on the move to maintain their traditional mode of life, and their mobility was guided by established customs and institutions. Migration was an essential and regular component of a relatively stable social and economic order.3
