Urbs - Magyar várostörténeti évkönyv 7. (Budapest, 2012)
Recenziók
Abstracts 587 could not regain its former position because the royal residency was moved to Buda. By the end of the 13lh century the division of labour became fairly improved, thus the local settlers were occupied mainly with handicraft. Intense handicraft existed also out of the borders of the castrum, in settlements around the castle. Visegrád became Hungarian royal residence in 1323 which resulted serious changes. By the written and archaeological sources one can suspect that many types of handicraft were represented there. In case of Esztergom, Buda and Visegrád three tendencies can be defined. The craftsmen attempted to take advantage of the different economic conditions and possibilities. The (perpetual) presence of the royal and queen’s court possessed a high level of importance, because it resulted in the increasing number of orders and in the improvement of quality. Nevertheless, translocation of the royal court did not mean evidently the decline of handicraft: craftsmen produced tools useful for everyday as well. KRISZTINA ARANY Buda as the Centre of Reign and Long-Distance Trade in the 15th Century in Light of the Activity of Florentine and South German Businessmen This paper studies the role of the 15,h century Buda in the long-distance trade and its changes during the second half of the 14th century by comparison of the activity of Florentine and South German businessmen who moved to that city. The presence of both of these groups during the 15th century, with shorter or longer intermissions can be proved. The main characteristic of their activity in Buda was rather a “peaceful coexistence” as well as sometimes a business partnership than a concurrency. According to the sources, they partitioned the market and spheres of activity among themselves. While the Florentines, who were much-more capital-intensive and implied improved business technics and operated as a part of a European wide system of interrelations, concentrated on the commerce of the luxuries and lending, the main interests of the South Germans were the trading inexpensive textile in a large quantities and other regional products. Uniquely in Central Europe three Florentine trading companies operated in Buda in the 1420s, which refers clearly to the city’s importance in this region. Just appearance of the great South German trading companies meant the first real capital-intensive concurrency for the Florentines. Both of these groups’ representatives filled important positions in the sphere of the royal financial administration during the first half of the 15"’ century. (Particularly data concerning with trade in copper proved the common business activity between
