Folwark was a giant agricultural farm functioning in Poland from 14th century till 20th century, whose goal was to produce suprpluses for export. First folwarks were created on church and monastery owned grounds, later they were adopted both by nobleman (szlachta) and rich peasants (sołtys ).
Creation of folwarks has been boosted by growing demand for grain and profitability of its exports, both to Western Europe and inside Poland. This in turn lead to creation of serfdom, when land owners discovered that instead of money-based rent and taxes it was more profitable to force peasantry to work on folwarks. Folwark-based grain export was an important part of the economy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In Poland serfdom was regulated (and increased) by Act of Piotrków and Act of Toruń . With the fall of agriculture goods prices in the end of 17th century, folwark economy was in crisis, and szlachta attempts to increase production by increasing folwarks area (usually by appopriating peasant lands) and labour (usually by increasing work demand for peasants) only compunded the economic crisis and further worsened the fate of peasants, which have been, until then, not poorer than their average counterparts in Western Europe.
Until end of 18th century folwarks reamined the basis for szlachta economic and political power. After abolition of serfdom, folwark used paid labor.
Folwarks has been destroyed by People's Republic of Poland, whith the PKWN decree of 6th September 1944 about agricultural reform. After the end of Second World War folwarks have been nationalised (resulting in PGRs - state owned folwarks, Polish Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne ) or partitioned, usually with no or little compensation to their owners.
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