PRAVNOISTORIJSKI POGLED NA MENIČNU (NE)SPOSOBNOST SELjAKA

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of development of exchange ability, i.e. inabilitiy in Serbia, in the period from the second half of the 19th century to the first decades of the 20th century; with special reference to the peasant’s exchange inability. Namely, in the Commercial Code of the Principality of Serbia, from 1860, it was stipulated that peasants who are interested in agricultural work do not have a passive exchange ability. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the provision on the passive exchange inability of the peasants was increasingly circumvented in practice, and criticized in theory. Despite this, the drafter of the Bill of Exchange Law for the Kingdom of Serbia, since 1912, retains the provision on the passive exchange inability of the peasants. However, as a result of the war, this Project was not legalized, with the fact that the peasants were still denied the passive exchange ability, based on the Commercial Code from 1860. The question of the passive inability of the peasants came up again in the territory of Serbia, after the formation of the Kingdom of SHS; it was necessary to unify the bill of exchange law, and therefore to solve the problem of the peasant's exchange (in)ability in a unique way. In this connection, there were arguments for the prescription of passive peasant inability in the Yugoslav Kingdom as well. But, as it was mostly Serbians who advocated for peasant’s inability, a provision was included in the text of the Yugoslav Bill of Exchange, according to which peasants also enjoyed a passive exchange ability.