Horváth Attila – Bánkuti Imre – H. Tóth Elvira szerk.: Cumania 3. Historia (Bács-Kiskun Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei, Kecskemét, 1975)

Petri E.: A kecskeméti görög kereskedők története a XVIII. században

the Greek merchants living in Pest and having a shop there supplied goods from Leipzig and Vienna as well as Hungarian and Turkish articles to the markets in Pest — sold in retail on the markets at Kecskemét. The close relation between the Greeks in Pest and at Kecskemét is shown by the fact that the Greeks in Pest often referred in their applications to the greater liberty in commerce of their partners at Kecskemét. Beside the possibility of selling and buying, the annual fairs at Kecskemét were suitable for establishing wide-range commercial connections. The Greek merchants of the town frequently attended the most important fairs of the country, they had the closest business relations with Pest, Vác and Szeged. Most of the Greeks came to Kecskemét at the age of 8—15, with the exception of the very first immigrants who were older. The Greeks maintaining independent shops were between 26 and 50 year old. Among the merchants above 60 there were very few trading alone, in most cases they assisted as partners or helpers (famulus) in the shop of their relatives. The journeymen worked as apprentices before the age of 19—25, later they were qualified for assistants and after some time they became independent. Very few among the independent merchants served earlier at Kecskemét, mainly as apprentices. Most of them came from Macedonia with a Greek merchant who had been trading at Kecskemét or in another Hungarian town before, but strange enough, in most of the cases they did not find employment with the merchant who took them as a child from their country. From the very beginning the town and its population turned against the Turkish subjects and their attitude was practically never changed. The municipal council did its best to counteract the Greek merchants' activity. Difference in religion and fashion played an important role in the conflicts. The strange rites of the Eastern Church had a deterrent affect on the Hungarian population. The municipal council and the dislike of the population could not slow down the assimilation of the Greeks and their adopting the customs of the new homeland. Their asssimilation was expedited also by an economic compulsion — the purchaser preferred the shops where he was served in his language. Realizing this, the Greek merchants did more or less write — and were supposed to speak Hungarian in the 40-ies of that century. After 1774 Greeks, who became Hungarian subjects, could trade with everything but the authorities stillt hindered that. Greeks who were granted citizenship could only visit their country if they had a passport from the comitat and if they did not return within 6 months and had no heirs in Hungary, their property failed to the treasury. Attempts were made to overcome the old problem of smuggling properties by promising one third of the property to the denunciator. Beside using the Hungarian language they aimed at preserving their mother tongue, too. For this reason families living at Kecskemét maintained a Greek school from 1793 to 1881. The immigration of Turkish subjects ended after the peace treaty of Kuchuk-kaynarji and thus the procedure of converting Greeks to become Hungarians, that had been going on for long years, was significantly accelerated. By the end of the 18th century the Greek colony became part of the town to such extent that, when the Piarist and Calvinist school morality plays were „Hungarized" and changed according to the special tastes at Kecskemét, the Greek merchant was never left out of the popular figures of the town. The transit trade of Hungary which became the absorbing market of the goods of the Austrian industry ceased almost entirely by the end of the 18th century, so the Greek merchants in Hungary became sellers of domestic products within the limits of the mercantilist industry defendce policy and they lost their significance. Together with the Hungarian merchants they began to fight against the common rival: the Jewish merchants. After the victory of the Greek war of independence many of them returned to their liberated mother country and the assimilation of those remaining in Hungary became almost full. 75