A Herman Ottó Múzeum Évkönyve 44. (2005)

Dobrossy István: Görög, magyar, zsidó boltok és üzletek Miskolc belvárosában a 18-19. században

GREEK, HUNGÁRIÁN, JEWISH SHOPS AND STORES IN THE CENTRE OF MISKOLC IN THE 18

TH AND 19

TH CENTURY The main Street, marked as lower-, middle- and upper-market was the trade centre through centuries. Since the beginning of the 18

th century, information about shops, stores and their products have been mentioned. People who dealt with trade belonged to the Greek and Jewish population. They did not get a permission to reside; therefore they rented their shops from the crown domain of Diósgyőr. In spite of the fact that this situation meant defenselessness for them, it forced those people to improve their business, enlarge of their merchandise and increase their income. Because of these circumstances they imported goods evén from the Balkans and from the countries of West Europe, where they alsó cxported wine as an exchange. The main products that anived to Miskolc were mostly clothes and raw materials and secondly were spices. Their costumers basically were the well-to-do bourgeois. Though, the big percentage of the habitants (craftsmen, agricultural workers, wine-growers) stayed self-sufficient or bought the products at the markets. The survey proves that the number of craftsmen essentially exceeded the number of merchants. A certain connection developed between the two stratums, which caused a situation by the beginning of the 19

th century, in which the trade assets built in the production of crafts or in the manufacturing of goods. The factory-like initiatives appeared at the middle of the 19

th century but until the Compromise of 1867 there was no essential change in the standard of productions. In that time the trade was more eventful. The transit exchange remained important but the big improvement can be found in the development of the system of the city shop network. István Dobrossy 259