1528 census of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (original) (raw)

The census of 1528 was the first census carried out in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was not a true census since it had limited scope: it only sought to count peasant households (Lithuanian: dūmas) for military purposes. The Grand Duchy used a conscript army where Lithuanian nobles were required to provide one soldier per each 16 or 20 households owned. Therefore, the state needed to count such households to know whether a noble fulfilled his military duty. The next census was conducted in 1565.